Operation Last Train Goes Vertical

 First, some explanation is in order:

1) I'm printing up a new set of terrain for a contest.  I'm only halfway done.  Everything is only halfway painted.  But I just gotta play something!  So I fired up Operation Last Train.

2) Since it is still in progress, some of the components of the base are not for public consumption.  Blacked-out portions of the screen are not to be published on galactic media.

3)  WTF is wrong with blogger?  No matter what I do, if I bulk-upload pictures, it puts them in the wrong order.  Renaming, re-timestamping, nothing works.  Since I had to individually upload pics, this is a much shorter post.  

4)  The intent was to play a game and see if the terrain will work, not to take quality pictures.  That will show, I warn you.

Anyway:  The volunteer rescue crew has received a distress signal.  Civilians are holed up at the base of the station.  Can they get to them?

The crew starts out on the landing pad.  It's LT Badger's normal crew, with a replacement for Private Yellow (still in sickbay).

Their objective.  The closed room 5 levels below contains an unknown number of survivors.  

First contact is made.  And the theme of the game was set.  All dice rolls were either heroic or terrible.

Just a couple levels down, LT Badger gets jumped from behind!

With the expected result.  Even the "re-roll" card didn't help.  There goes our Comm specialist!

The two teams continue to descend, meeting bugs all the way.

An example of the dice rolls.  An alien charges PVT Blue, and he knocks the aliens head off in hand-to-hand

SHOOT IT, GRONK!  SHOOT IT!  CPL Gronk's machine gun came in handy.

Contact is made!  PVT Red gets the door open to find 7 civilians.  PVT White covers the deployment point (house rule).

But White has to uncover the point to pick up a train of civilians.  Of course, the dice gods rule that an alien spawns on it.

Another example of the dice rolling:  At one point Blue needs to kill a downed alien.  He plays "Full Auto" just to be sure.

And misses with all his dice!  The civilians were not impressed. 

This spawn point became the focus of the game.  It generated more aliens than any other, including a couple "big momma" aliens.  (Another house rule)

Somewhere in the lost pictures, somebody made a successful call for the dropship.  Some of the civilians were sent ahead.  As they know the layout of the base, they will go to the right and not run in to the alien. Or will they?

PVT Red failed to check his 6 and didn't see what was below him!

The first alien swarms up the ladder and attacks.  I random-rolled to see who it hit.  Private Red.

The 2nd alien attacks, and randomly picked Red again.  Bye-bye, Red.

You can guess what happened next round.  The civilians couldn't flee quickly enough and were devoured. 

RIP, anonymous civilians

Endgame.  All survivors have made it to the top level and are racing for the landing pad.  Gronk and White cover the rear.

A close battle the entire way. Nobody could get kill shots on the aliens, just kept knocking them down for some distance. 

SUCCESS!  The survivors make it to the landing pad.  5 civilians rescued.

RIP, PVT RED (KIA) and LT BADGER (MIA)

 

Perilous Tales XMas Playtest

I opened my final Christmas gift today.  "I'll play any wargame you want" - from my wife.  So we set up and played Perilous Tales.  She picked Firefly characters for the heroes.

The Scenario:  Another ruffian has stolen Mal's cargo and taken a prisoner.  He fled to a lonely ice moon called the "North Pole".  He was sending ransom demands to Mal when suddenly all transmissions stopped.  Mal and his crew have landed and are tracking them down.  But what happened to the bad guys?

The setup.  Black markers are the unrevealed Threat Markers.

With 2 players, we went with:

Team 1:  Leader Zoe, Jayne, and Wash

Team 2:  Leader Mal, Simon, and Inarra

We picked our traits this time, didn't roll for them.

The objectives were also picked:

1) Rescue the Prisoner

2) Find the Loot (Recover Equipment)

3) Steal the Truck (new one):  The red truck is special to my wife.  It had an additional loot marker in it.  Anyone could successfully interact with it and drive it off the board.

Team 1 at the top, my team at the bottom

Half the team.  Forgot to photo the others.

Who is the prisoner?

The setup was "corridor", so we had a nice easy hike up the center.  Everybody snuck right up the middle, careful not to trigger any threat markers.

Jayne searches for loot, doesn't find anything.  Wash tries the truck, and finds a loot box already in it!  Zoe won't go to the building because it would trigger a marker.

We got very lucky our first couple rounds, and the markers never moved.  Only the threat level slowly crept up.  

After the first crew searched, Mal's crew went to work.  Both Simon and Inarra found loot boxes.

Mal rushed to the prisoner, triggering a Threat Marker.

It's "Unsteady Ground".  Mal stays on his feet and unmasks the prisoner.

Hey, Preacher.  Let's get you out of here.

Simon drags his box back to the truck and jumps in with it.  Preacher jumps in the truck (later I moved him to the bed).  Inarra makes it back to the truck but can't get on board.

Everybody starts piling up on the truck.  Jayne takes overwatch.

At this point we were feeling very lucky.  The 4 back Threat Markers had barely moved.  We had only triggered 1 marker so far.  We knew that if Wash got into the driver's seat of the truck, it would trigger a reaction.

So Wash, with his "handy" ability, climbed into the passenger seat and hot-wired the truck.  The Villain phase was minimal.  So next turn he slid into the driver seat.

TRIGGER!  It's the assistant boss, Number 2.  A giant evil Christmas Tree with all sorts of special abilities.  It attacks Wash in the cab.  And it rolls a 10 for difficulty!  

(Yes, it should have rolled Advantage for the first attack.  But Wash was in cover (behind a closed window), so it should have had Disadvantage.  So we rolled 1 die for the difficulty.  It was a 10.  Just to be fair, we tried again.  Another 10.)

In both games so far, every big-bad-guy has rolled fails for difficulty multiple times.  I know it is just an anomaly, but still...

Attack, Miss.

Attack, Miss.

An absolutely pitiful showing for the evil monsters.  Now it was our turn.  Jayne took careful aim with Vera and shot great big holes in the tree, wounding it.  Zoe (who took Brute as a skill) ran up and engaged a giant, whipping-branches, Christmas tree in hand-to-limb combat.  And then proceeded to cut it down with her hands!  

Zoe starts chopping at the evil tree

Clark, where is the station wagon?

With the tree out of the way, our band is able to start moving.  Inarra managed to get the loot on the truck, but stayed on foot.  But at this point, 2 hazards had been revealed, and the truck had to pass between them.  "Unsteady Ground" and "Mired".  For Unsteady Ground, we said that anybody who failed their skill check would fall off the truck.  Wash would just fall out of the seat.

First round of movement, and Preacher falls right off the truck!

Finally, the Threat Check caused a minion to spawn.  An Evil Snowman popped out of the snow right on Inarra!  Oh No!

But Inarra took "discrection"...

And slides away from the snowman before he can attack.  

On the Villain activation, another snowman spawns, this one on Mal.  He rolls exceptionally well, clawing Mal for multiple wounds.

Ow!

But next hero phase, Jayne and Zoe blast multiple rounds into one snowman, putting it down.  And Mal scores 4 wounds on his snowman.  Just like that, they melt back into the snow.

No more bad guys

All that is left is for Wash to drive us off the board before the Threat Level gets to 10.  The other Threat Markers just can't catch up.  But Wash has to drive through both boggy ground and lots of bumps.  

Just before leaving the board, Wash hits a big rut.  (Unstable Ground).  He fails and is knocked out of the driver seat.

"Ace Pilot" forgot his seatbelt

Villain Phase triggers a horror check.  Preacher, Simon, and Jayne all fail, and bolt off the back of the truck!  Maybe they don't trust Wash's driving. 

Final Hero phase.  Inarra daintily steps off the board.  Mal, Preacher, Simon and Jayne leave.  All Wash has to do is get up and drive the truck off.  He gets up for his first action, does an Unstable Ground check, and falls over again.  Maybe Zoe should have done some inspiring talk on him.

Instead, Zoe slings herself into the front seat, shoves Wash to the side, then passes all her skill checks to drive the truck off board.

It's "A Truly Heroic Performance" for our group! 

AFTERMATH:

So, in retrospect, this one was too easy.  Part of it was luck of the setup.  Some of the threat markers were too far away to have an effect.  And the ones we did draw were mostly minor.  The one big baddie we drew blew his dice rolls.

To make this a better game in the future, I would change one thing:  Make the Heroes get the truck back off their starting edge.  Give the truck faster movement (6"), but that would take them back through the other Threat Markers.  Or at least make them exit the starting half of the board.

This is who they were supposed to see:

Evil Santa Warband

Another Full Spectrum Dominance Playtest

 Playtest Scenario Into Enemy Territory

The Enlisted Counter-Intelligence team has located the source of the evil Log4J virus that has crippled the economy.  A volunteer force has been assembled to destroy the hackers and free up their payroll.

The soul-less Tech defenders, realizing they poked the wrong dragon, have quickly assembled a droid army to protect their server farm.

Attacker:  60p

Wave 1: (37p) 

Heavy Battle tank x2

Tank commander

Scouts

Guided missile

Armored infantry 

Troops Carrier

Mobile Artillery

Wave 2:  (+23p) TURN 3

Main Battle Tank x4

Tank Commander

Defenders:  (60p)

Wave 1 (20p)

Gun Platform

Fire Control AI

Heavy Spider Droids

Sattelite Uplink

Wave 2 SKIP

Wave 3 (+19p) Turn 3

Socrates Battle Rig x2

Jamming

Wave 4 (+11p) Turn 4

Heavy Droids x2

Sattelite Uplink

Wave 5 (+10p) Turn 5

Gun Platform

Attackers enter from left.  3 white storage containers are the secondary objectives

Initial Deployments;

The Enlisted start with heavy tanks on the bottom, mobile artillery in the center, and a loaded troop carrier up top

Heavy spider droids cover one flank

And the Gun Platform covers the other.  Yellow discs were originally used to denote the zones, but then removed, as they were needed for pins

Turn 1:

Attackers win init.

Troop carrier races forward.  Uses both actions to get into cover, so it cannot deploy troops.

Tech heavy spider droids move forward

Heavy tank 306 activates.  It has the Tank Commander on board.  He activates his special ability so everybody around him gets an extra move action.  That, along with command 3, lets both tanks and the mobile artillery move.  He moves 2 DU with 1st (free) action, 1 DU with 2nd action, and fires on the Gun Platform.  GP only takes a pin.

Other Heavy Tank moves up, takes a shot at GP (this one through cover).  GP shrugs it off.  

Mobile Arty moves up.

All AD are used up, scouts cannot deploy.

Gun platform has to unpin, then he shoots. Unfortunately, he didn't get the 1 needed to activate his Fire Control. 

306 takes a hit to his main gun!

End of turn 1.  No victory cards.

Turn 2: 

Attacker does not get reinforcements.  

Defender skips reinforcements for more points next turn.

Defender wins init.

Attacker gets lousy AD roll, re-roll only helps a little bit.

Defender pushes his heavy spider droids forward, hoping to kill the APC before it can deploy.  However, expecting this, the Attacker placed an AD on the APC.  It reacts by dumping the squad.  It's a good thing, as it takes 2 hits to the tracks and is destroyed!  Since action is simultaneous, I rule that the squad deployed, but gets pinned.  They use their deploy action to unpin.

Heavy Tank 306 activates, Tank Commander uses his special ability.  Gun platform ignores him, he knows the main gun is out.  But what is this?  306 unpins, uses the free move to go forward, and starts machine-gunning the secondary objective.  

They may have an ace tank commander on board, but their gunner sucks.  Only needed a 3 to hit!

The second heavy tank moves forward and fires on the Gun Platform.  It reacts and fires also. The Gun Platform scores a kill!  The Heavy Tank fire is inneffective. 

The Mobile Artillery moves up and destroys one of the objectives!  Kinda overkill.  Victory Card.

Why use machine guns when you have heavy rockets?

Defenders pass.

The Scouts deploy into cover.

Defenders pass.

Scouts launch a guided missile at the gun platform.

One hit goes in.  Gun 1 is out of action.

Their deployment was just barely outside 2 DU from the platform

End of Turn 2.

Turn 3:  Defenders win init again.

Both sides get reinforcements

Attackers deploy 2x Socrates rigs.  They jump forward.

Technically, they should be on the edge of the hill.

The Armored infantry shoots up the secondary objective.  1st base rolls a 6,6,5.  The objective saves with a 7,7,6.  The second base rolls a 1,1,2.  Unbelievable!  They're standing right next to the broad side of a shipping container and miss.

Gun platform activates, unpins, and takes a shot at 306.  An armor hit.  306 is still alive.

The Attacker deploys his reserves.  4 medium tanks with a TC.  He activates his ability and they get a free move.  Nobody can shoot, but there are suddenly a lot more targets out there.  The Tank Commander ability is well worth the AD cost.

They are moving towards the center.  This was a ruse, and the defender fell for it.

Spider droids need some attack dice.  Attacker triggers a satellite uplink to re-roll some spent AD.  They only get 3s.  Stupid satellite.

Attacker has only 1 AD left.  Should he activate the guided missile and try to take out the GP, or the arty and take out another objective?  He goes for the objective.  Boom!

Giant gun.  Small container.  Still gets me a victory card!

Spider droids move forward and attack the armored infantry.  They shrug it off.

End of turn 3.  No attackers in zone 3, so defenders get a VC.

Turn 4:

Defender gets reinforcements.

Attacker wins initiative.

They use most of their AD to load up the tanks.  

Tank 1 activates, TC is going to let everybody get an extra move.  The move towards the center was a fake!  He starts charging for the mainframe.  Gun Platform has a reaction die, and shoots at him.  He hits for movement damage.  That pins tank 1.  He unpins and limps on, but now he doesn't have an action to shoot. Tanks 2,3,4 all race forward and take the mainframe under fire.  

Even with 3 tanks firing on it, the mainframe only takes 2 damage.  The Gun Platform did its job.

The 2 Socrates hastily jump behind the tanks and start to pound them.  One Socrates blows the tracks off of tank 4.  The second gets a kill on tank 1, and the commander!  No more combined movement until Heavy 306 comes up.

Defender thought he would have time to deploy 1 more unit to block the hole.  He was wrong.

The mobile Artillery moves forward but can't get the shot.

Defenders deploy a squad of Heavy Droids and they fire on the tanks.  Another tank pinned with track damage.

End of turn 4.  No VC

Turn 5:

Defender gets another Gun Platform.

Attacker gets initiative.

Defender loads up on reaction dice

Wait, reaction dice aren't going to cut it.  As long as the tanks are not moving or shooting at the Socrates, they can't react.  So the tanks go first.  (Mobile artillery would have to move first, triggering a reaction.)  

Tank 4 goes first.  Unpins and fires.  Will use his command 1 to activate Tank 3.  

But none of it is needed, as his first shot slams home, destroying the mainframe!  Game over!

Take that, you evil hackers!

Attacker:  17 VP from cards.  -3 VP from dead units.

Defender:  3 VP from cards. 

Final score:  14 to 3, Attacker.  

Another fun game that took unexpected turns.