Escape from Aniron Part 4

Get to the shuttle!

Jedi Master Vhing has made it through the Valley of Death (see Part 3) with most of his friends. They reach evil crime lord Zenyatta Mondatta's headquarters and make their way to the landing area, hoping to steal one of the spaceships to make their escape.

While approaching the landing field they come across Baccracka, a locked up Wookie gladiator. In return for his freedom he pledges to help Master Vhing and his friends.

The good guys

Zenyatta has assembled a group of villains to stop Master Vhing after failing to receive the message that Cad Bane had captured or killed Master Vhing (see Part 3).

The bad guys

On the tarmac, the shuttle Synchronicity II (look here for the post on how it was built) is being loaded with contraband, guarded by the repurposed battle droid UB 40.

Ground crew are moving about.

Master Vhing and friends are sneaking towards the shuttle.

Hoping to take the shuttle by surprise, Master Vhing and Baccracka run to the loading ramp, followed by OU 812. Blayne and the Jawas fire at the battle droid.

They miss! UB 40 returns fire. Blayne is wounded and down! But OU 812 is using its' medipack to heal the wound.

Master Vhing removes the threat by running to UB 40 and slicing him in half with his lightsaber.

Suddenly a blaster fires from within the shuttle. It misses Master Vhing. Baccracka storms into the cargo hold swinging his glaive at Groff the Trandoshan. 

Groff evades the blow. Now it becomes clear:

Baccracka is surrounded by villains laying in ambush inside the shuttle.

Barrg the Gamorrean jumps down, intending to chop Baccracka in two. But Baccracka parries the blow and cuts Barrg down.

Before Jarrg can jump in to avenge his brother, Groff the Trandoshan kills the Wookie.

Again Master Vhing charges in, cutting down Jarrg and engaging Groff in close combat.

Finally, Zenyatta enters the fight. Zenyatta has used the Force to craft his criminal empire and keep his minions in line. He emerges from the cockpit and strikes Master Vhing with a bolt of Force Lightning.

Master Vhing manages to defeat the Trandoshan, but has suffered a wound and a shock. Meanwhile Zenyatta has leapt to higher ground.

Blayne and the Jawas have reached the ramp, but Blayne can't fire his heavy blaster inside the shuttle for fear of damaging it, so the Jawas move in.

The Jawas blast Zenyatta: he's wounded and down!

Master Vhing uses his powers to heal his wound and then jumps to Zenyatta for the final blow.

However: Zenyatta uses a mind trick (this is actually not in the Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes rules, but I may want to use Zenyatta again in another game) and escapes through a hatch.

While Zenyatta limps away from the shuttle. Master Vhing and friends take off. When they try to set a course off planet they discover however that there isn't enough coaxium to make the jump to light speed.

They must refuel at a spaceport. So they set course to one of Aniron's smaller spaceports, hoping to get the fuel and leave before the Empire finds them. The sub-space transmitter on board works fine, and as a precaution Master Vhing sends a coded distress signal to his Jedi friends.

After recovering from his wound in a Bacta tank, Zenyatta informs the Empire that the shuttle Synchronicity II has been captured by Master Vhing but it can't leave Aniron before refuelling.

Both Imperial reinforcements and Jedi rescuers are now on their way to Aniron for a final showdown in the next game.

Welcome to the jungle

We've been playing our Sharpe Power Armour rules mix (based on Chain of Command, Sharpe Practice and What a Tanker), fielding power armour units on both sides. This time I wanted to try an asymmetric scenario where power armour has to take on low tech militia type adversaries. In order to prevent the militia being obliterated in the first turn, we needed lots of cover on the table: jungle!

The scenario:

The Resource Development Administration not only mines for unobtanium on Pandora but also on other planets where the natives don't appreciate their activities. A technical malfunction has forced an RDA gunship to make an emergency landing in the jungle. The RDA is sending a power armoured taskforce to recover the pilot and repair the gunship if possible. The natives hurry towards the landing site to retrieve munitions, weapons and ordnance from the gunship. Eating the pilot would be a bonus.

The pilot scans the jungle for threats

The natives are slowly moving through the undergrowth towards the landing site.

Some of the columns carry heavy weapons mounted on beasts of burden.

The RDA task force consists of 2 heavy power armoured troopers and 2 support robots. They muscle their way trough the undergrowth.

Both sides have almost reached the clearing where the gunship has landed.

The natives rush past the gunship, into the firing arc of the RDA taskforce.

The machine gun fire takes down the beast with the heavy weapon and allows the pilot to escape into the jungle.

The surviving natives charge the nearest power armour trooper, inflicting some serious damage. Unfortunately they also took enough damage to break and retreat into the safety of the jungle.

The problem for the natives is that when they can shoot at the RDA taskforce they can also be shot. And while they succeed in taking out one of the robots, they're taking a lot of casualties.

Nevertheless, one native group sneaks up to the missile pods of the gunship, using the gunship as cover.

They start to remove missiles from the pod.

One of the RDA power armoured troopers uses his jump-packs however to land smack in the middle of the native group, scattering them in close combat.

Although the power armour is severely damaged, repair actions restore it within an few turns to full functionality. Because of their losses there is now no real chance for the natives to get near the gunship so they fade away into the jungle.

The pilot meanwhile enjoys a refreshing beverage and some snacks from the supply drone.

The rules performed reasonably well. The natives got pretty far, destroying one robot and severely damaging the two power armour troopers. A scenario where the natives benefit from prepared ambushes and hidden IED's will probably provide a more balanced game.

After Curly Billy shot down Crazy Sam McGee Part 1

We kicked off our What a Cowboy campaign yesterday with the Rescue scenario from the rulebook.

The story so far:

A wealthy rancher, Frederick Broadstone (originally from Germany and known there as Friedrich von Breitstein) has settled in a Rocky Mountain valley. He owns most of the nearby town of Broadstone, including the saloon and the nearby silvermine. Broadstone didn't appreciate that Curly Billy also started a competing saloon in the town and began an intimidation campaign against Billy. The local sherrif "Crazy" Sam McGee turned a blind eye. After another incident, Billy's son tried to confront Broadstone, but was killed by one of his henchmen.

Curly Billy vowed to avenge his son and gunned down both the killer of his son and Crazy Sam McGee.

On the run from the Law and Broadstone, Billy has formed a gang and tries to hurt Broadstone wherever he can. Broadstone has contracted several Pinkertons to take out Billy and his gang.

Campaign map

Part 1; Bad man's cabin.

Curly Billy has kidnapped Broadstone's bookkeeper and has hidden him high in the mountains in Bad man's cabin. Broadstone's men have tracked Billy's gang to the cabin and are intent on bringing back the bookkeeper.

Paddy deploys inside the house with the bookkeeper and Mad Jack outside at the back of the house.

The Law and Curly Billy and Hans deploy at opposite table edges.

Billy moves to the top of a nearby ridge from which he has an excellent view of the cabin area.

 

The Pinkerton leader, Davey Kroket, approaches the front of the house while Mad Jack moves to the corner of the cabin.

Soon the Pinkertons are closing in on the cabin, exchanging fire with Paddy and Mad Jack.

The Duke even manages to come within point blank range of Mad Jack, but both manage to dodge the gunfire.

Mad Jack pursues the Duke, but finds himself surrounded by Pinkertons.

Dodging the crossfire, Mad Jack has to withdraw to the cabin and is joined by Hans Huffheins who certainly took his time to walk from the table edge to the cabin!

The Pinkertons close in on Mad Jack.

Meanwhile at the front of the cabin, Davey Kroket has taken several bullets from both Paddy in the cabin and Curly Billy on the ridge.

He loses all his action dice and is put out of action. With some shock on the other Pinkertons, they fail their Ride or Die test and withdraw from the table.

Paddy escorts the bookkeeper to safety, gaining enough reputation to be promoted from Greenhorn to Shootist!

All characters recover from their wounds and will face each other again in part 2!

This being our first What a Cowboy game, we forgot a number of things (taking Ride or Die tests and using the Desperado cards for instance) and had to look up stuff in the rulebook, but it was a fun game.