Escape from Aniron Part 3

Through the valley of death

Jedi Master Vhing and company have evaded bounty hunters after escaping from their ambush in Part 2.

They found refuge in a small Jawa village where they learn that the village and all neighboring villages are under the thumb of the local crime lord: Zenyatta Mondatta. Mondatta is the boss of the Invisible Sun cartel and requires all villages to pay tribute in the form of harvested fungal matter which can be transformed into profitable narcotics. This is very dangerous for the Jawas because of the highly toxic spore clouds that the giant funghi often release when disturbed.

The Jawas offer to guide Master Vhing and company through a valley covered with giant funghi to the headquarters of Mondatta. There Master Vhing intends to steal one of Mondatta's space ships and escape from Aniron.

The good guys

Mondatta has spies in every village, however. One of these informs the cartel that a Jedi knight accompanied by others with a bounty on their head are making their way through the valley. Mondatta sees an opportunity to collect the bounty, neutralise a threat, set an example for other villages and ingratiate himself with the new Imperial overlords, all in one swift strike.

He dispatches Cad Bane and some hired hands to intercept Master Vhing.

The bad guys

My son and I played the game again using the Galactic Heroes Fistful of Lead rules. Two special event cards were put in the deck. When drawn this would trigger the release of a poisonous spore cloud from a random clump of funghi (starting in the middle, throwing a d6 for each clump, spiralling outwards). The first 4+ would eject the cloud drifting in a random direction with a random speed (d6 + direction dice), moving at the beginning of a new turn. The cloud blocks LOS and instantly kills anyone it touches except OU812 and BH90210 since they are droids, and Master Vhing (who could create a Force bubble) and Cad Bane (using his respirator thing).

My son played the good guys and had to get his party from one table edge to the opposite table edge to win.

Both sides moved forward, looking for an opening in the dense fungal growth to fire at each other.

The reprogrammed former battle droid BH 90210 fires its blaster.

And Blayne is hit! Wounded and down.

Meanwhile the cartel's heavy blaster guy Bossassa takes up a position where he can shoot at Master Vhing. The Gamorrean brute Vronk is looking for someone to beat up in close combat.

They have been spotted by Ptanak from Master Vhing's party.

Just when the bad guys are getting ready to shoot again at Master Vhing and Blayne, the nearby clump of funghi releases a poisonous spore cloud conveniently blocking LOS, allowing Master Vhing to Force heal Blayne.

Bossassa leaves his cover, trying to get a clear shot at Master Vhing. This exposes him to Ptanak, who aims, shoots and puts him out of action. The Gamorrean brute takes the opportunity to run towards the guy who just shot his buddy.

In the mean time Cad Bane has been spending his turns firing his laser pistols at two Jawa guides without hitting them!

BH 90210 and the Weequay Kobaki have more success. They take out one of the Jawa guides.

Casualties rise in the next turn when Blayne and the Jawa's blast Cad Bane in a crossfire, taking him out of action.

And Vronk the Gamorrean charges Ptanak, killing him in one swift blow.

Blayne turns round and shreds the Weequay while BH 90210 kills the second Jawa guide.

The other two Jawas have reached the target table edge together with OU812. They can't leave the table yet because of the "loyal" crew trait. They will have to wait for Blayne and Master Vhing.

Master Vhing had rushed to the aid of Ptanak, but was unable to prevent his death. In a flurry of light saber strikes the Gamorrean brute is put out of action.

There is no rest for Master Vhing however. Sensing trouble he turns around and runs back to where BH 90210 has just dropped Blayne (wounded & down).

Blayne manages to get up (recovery roll) but now BH 90210 fires his blaster point blank at Master Vhing.

Master Vhing fails to deflect the blast with his light saber and is put out of action!

Fortunately he has the 9-lives trait and may convert an out of action result into a wound once per game.

Nearly at the end of his strenght he moves within striking distance of the battledroid and neatly slices it in two.

Game over for Mondatta's crew.

Another fun and action packed Galactic Heroes game. In the next game Master Vhing and his remaining crew will face the infamous Zenyatta Mondatta!

MIB vs the Fallers part 4: The Nest

After surviving an infiltration attempt by the Fallers (read all about it here) the MIB continue to investigate the Faller threat. They follow the trail to a small town called Tinville, believed to be the base from which the Fallers operate. Observations seem to indicate that most of the town has been taken over by Fallers. MIB has blocked all access to the town and has a small tactical nuke standing by to eradicate the Fallers. 

But first MIB will attempt a surgical strike to secure a laptop on which a Faller administrator has listed the locations of all Faller assets. Valuable information for the MIB to ascertain the spread and operations of the Fallers.

There are strong suspicions that Fallers have hidden Faller eggs in buildings to "eggsume" people that happen to wander into town. MIB scientists have discovered that the irresistable attraction of the Faller eggs is caused by airborne feromones and they built several feromone detectors that signal when a Faller egg is near.

The Plan:

MIB will enter Tinville with 4 teams:

Team A: Full hazmat suit with integrated detectors

Team B: Agents with resipirators blocking Faller feromones accompanied by a hazmat tech with detector

Team C: regular MIB agents accompanied by a hazmat tech with detector

Team D: SWAT team accompanied by a hazmat tech with detector.

Team C and D cannot enter buildings containing an egg because they will be unable to resist the attraction of the Faller egg and will be eggsumed. 

The laptop is located in the tower of the central building. MIB must appropriate it and leave the table with it to win.

The Fallers have 5 teams with mixed weaponry spread out through this part of the town. Their job is to stop the MIB.

Buildings may or may not contain an egg. Protected personnell with a detector can detect an egg when near an opening in the building (roll a d6: even means no egg, odd means an egg).

My first idea was to play this with the FfoL bigger battles rules, but since my opponent and I played a lot of Chain of Command lately I thought the game would go smoother when we used Chain of Command rules.

We considered Fallers to be green (so easy to hit) but extremely tough (always in light cover, so difficult to kill). MIB are all regulars.

We roll a d6 and: I get to play the Fallers.

Seemingly ordinary citizens are going about their business in Tinville

A scouting MIB vehicle stops to investigate.

The citizen outside the building runs inside and alerts the nearby Faller cells.

A bus full of Fallers try to park the bus across the street to block it. Unfortunately they trigger a special event and a blazing fire suddenly engulfs the building near the bus (must've hit something vital while manouvering).

The Fallers exit the bus quickly, unsure what to do.

Unpertubed by the blaze, MIB team A arrives and detects a Faller egg inside.

The team clears the building, destroys the egg and move up the road towards the tower building together with the other MIB teams.

Meanwhile a police car full of Fallers is speeding towards the intruders.

MIB establish a roadblock and send their hazmat tech guy to check out the adjoining building

The hazmat tech carefully creates a small hole in the window and inserts a probe: the building contains an egg.

It turns out the building also contains a Faller cell and they open fire on the MIB agents.

MIB team C position their vehicle just outside pistol range of the police-fallers but are in range of the Fallers inside the building.

Concerned about being overwhelmed, I decide to deploy a Faller cell on the other side of the table to force my opponent to divide his forces.

A Faller cell storms out of a building into the parking lot of the burning supermarket, attempting to flank the MIB.

MIB immediately responds by sending their heavily armed B team.

My ploy worked. But now the Fallers with primarily close range firearms are unable to hit the MIB carrying long range firearms. The MIB understandably keep their distance and pour fire into the Faller cell.

Things are not going well for the Fallers. Morale is dropping because the Faller cell in the building is wiped out and the MIB is chipping away at the police-Fallers. The Faller senior leader has joined the police-Fallers to boost their morale.

All the gunfire cuased windows to break and suddenly an unprotected MIB is unable to resist the egg feromones. He runs inside the building and is already half eggsumed when team A shreds both him and the egg in a hail of fire.

The Faller cell guarding the bus decide they can't do anything where they are and they run to the sound of the guns.

More Fallers deploy in the Umbrella building.

But they are unable to prevent the police Fallers being wiped out to a man.

 In a desperate move I decide to charge the MIB.

Although very cinematic, it turns out to be not that smart. Both sides massacre each other and the senior leader of the MIB is killed. The loss of the entire Faller cell does however knock my force morale down to 2....

Too late I bring in the long range Faller cell.

They start picking off the MIB behind the cars, forcing them to withdraw to cover.

MIB team B are doing the same to the Faller cell in the parking lot. Unfortunately the Fallers lose their leader which brings Faller Force morale down to zero.

The MIB lost their senior leader, most of team A and all of team C and were unable to get the laptop. They did force the Fallers to retreat from this part of the town. From the opposition they encountered, the surviving ranking MIB member, Corporal Hicks, concludes that the entire town is infested with Fallers. He orders the retreat and calls in the tactical nuke to eradicate the Fallers...