Saturday, January 26, 2019

Five Parsecs From Home: Gladiator's Campaign Turn 1


The press gang...
This battle was played out on Friday night or what I like to call "Friday Night Fights." The wife works until 12:00 am and the kid is in bed by 7:30 pm so I have plenty of free time to set up and not have to worry about little hands grabbing at little figures and buildings. Anyhow, let's not drag on!
Hero deployment. I thought I'd have at least one random figure on guard duty, which happened to be Katsuda.

As I left off, the group was tracked down by a press gang. They are as follows:

Numbers: +0
Morale: 1  (These guys are not very well motivated...Hopefully I can get a quick victory!)
Movement: 4
Combat: 0
Toughness: 3
Fighting Style: Aggressive
Weapons: Handguns
Specialist: Shotgun
Leader: I decided to roll a D6 and on a 1 or 2 the specialist would be the leader, which they were not. So they are armed with a handgun and have the leader package: +1 Combat and Toughness is raised to 4.

Strategy: I want to get as many kills on the goons as I can to try and secure a morale victory. Pretty simple strategy, indeed. These guys seem like the weakest enemies to fight, which is fortunate as this is my first real battle.

Setup: Since neither gang has a weapon that has a range of 12", I started in close to avoid boring movement, which was a mistake!



Turn 1: With everyone set up, let the fighting begin! I rolled for initiative with Quick Actions going to no one.

Scanning the tree line, Katsuda thought she saw a face. No, she was sure now, it was somebody. The distinct sound of a shotgun being readied broke the silence. It was an ambush! "We're under attack! Everybody out!" Before anyone could get set, the press gang was upon them.

Caught out in the open, the crew was helpless. Shots rang out from the bushes and Hattie went down in a pile. More shots rang out, this time Jibril and Tereg dropped as well.

Doesn't look good for our "heroes!"

Herb kicked over the table and quickly took aim at the man with the shotgun. Squeezing the trigger of his blast pistol, Herb nailed him. He shouted something in his alien tongue (probably PWNT!).

Note to self, a strategically placed metal desk can save your life.

Katsuda stood atop the storage container horrified at the carnage below. She shook herself into reality, things were going bad, real fast. She steadied her aim and fired her cling fire pistol. She was almost knocked backwards by the two shots she fired. Peering over the ammunition box in front of her, she saw she blew the ganger's head clear off.
Not just a pretty face, she can also blow your head off!
Censored!

The press gang had had enough. They fled as fast as they came. After a few moments making sure the ambush was over, the sounds of the wounded could be heard. Katsuda tended to the wounded while Herb finished off the man he had shot with a garrote.



Man, that was brutal. All it took was one turn! I guess I shouldn't have set them up so close but it was an ambush so thought it might be appropriate. I expected it to be a short battle with just four scum. A lot of 6's were rolled both during the game and post-game so the dice gods definitely factored into my crews fate.

Post-Battle


Enemy Status: I rolled to see if the press gang remained an enemy. They had had enough leaving me with just three enemies on this planet...Including the dreaded assassins.

Get Paid and Loot Found: We looted 6 credits and a nano-booster off the bodies then, unceremoniously, pitched their bodies in the deeper woods.

Determine Injuries and Recovery:
Jibril suffered minor injuries. He will remain in sickbay for 1 campaign turn.
Hattie also suffered minor injuries and will be out for 1 turn.
Tereg suffered a leg wound. He now has -0.5" movement dropping him to 4". He also has to stay in bed for 1 turn.

Experience:
Kat gained 3 exp for surviving and holding the field.
Herb gained 3 exp for surviving and 1 for getting the first kill.
The rest of the gang got 1 exp each for going into sickbay. Could be worse!

Shopping: I spent 2 creds and got Jibril his hand gun. A nice get well gift!

Campaign Event: We sold off some cargo from our last job and earned 6 creds. Makes sense as we were all from an old mining ship, the Gladiator.

Character Event: Herb had some business to attend to and will be leaving for 2 turns! Nice, bro. Way to leave your leader hanging. When he returns, he'll 1D6 exp. and a roll on the loot table. Looks like I'll be recruiting since it's just down to Kat! Probably have to use the one time use "Have you met my mate?" ability too. I've decided I'll boot Hattie next upkeep as she is a liability with those damn assassins tracking her. I'll keep her shotgun though.

In hindsight, I think I should have recruited a couple of more members. It suggested 5 or 6 but I thought, "nah, I'm a tough guy, I'll just take 5!" Probably should have gone with my gut feeling to get at least 6. Live and learn!


4 comments:

  1. Yikes! That was brutal. Yeah, I started my campaign recruiting like crazy. Those first few battles are stressful. It is pretty funny that your leader is literally alone now. Good help is hard to find.

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    1. For sure! Need some muscle if I'm going to make it in this campaign.

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  2. I agree, brutal first turn! I recruited first turn as well, to get the crew up to 6. At least your upkeep for the next turn will be low! In hindsight, it might be better to start games with both sides at least one move from being in range, or one set of poor rolls on initiative can leave you floundering while you mostly have reaction stats of 1. You still managed to break the bad guys though! Hope your recruiting roll turns up a bruiser for you!

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    1. As it was my first game, I wasn't sure how recruiting folks would affect the game, how easy it is to get credits, how the after rolls would come into play, etc. Now I have a better understanding and hopefully next turn will be better. I'll be sure to stick to cover, play smart, and hope for a low enemy count as I have only four figures to work with.

      I've already rolled my new guys. No real bruisers but a couple with 1" speed increases. Will be interesting to see how it goes!

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