Strontium Dog Miniatures Game: The Bad

Having finally won the previous game with the agents, I could now turn to the next scenario in the mini campaign. Since Johnny and Wolf were supposed to be retired now, why not have them retire to a nice, lush spot instead of all the blasted, post-apocalyptic or dystopian settings of their other adventures?

TURN 1

While Bubba’s Gang silently moved to surround the shack, inside the shack Johnny Alpha was able to shake off his pin and get the chip back in the bag. Wulf failed and got pinned again. 

Only Bubba managed to move closer to the shack and go into Overwatch. The Gang played Sudden Momentum and got one regular chip back into the bag. 

Johnny successfully moved out of the shack and spotted Skull skulking around the lookout tower. Holy smokes! He sprinted to get behind an ancient barrier and succeeded in getting his chip back in the bag. He took a shot at Skull but didn’t do any damage.  

Brute charged Johnny, who successfully evaded the attack, but forgot to move back 3” and out of close combat. 

Johnny ended his turn by shooting at Skull but only stunned him. Good enough.

TURN 2

The ex-Agents played Cool As Der Cucumber which gave them +1 Cool for the rest of the turn. 

Interesting stuff happened. Skull shot Johnny who evaded and moved away from Brute. 

Johnny took 2 shots at Skull, pinning then incapacitating him. He also failed to get his chip back in the bag. Pinned. Dang. 

Wulf ran out and attacked Brute in the rear.... pinning then incapacitating him! Wulf tried to get his chip back in the bag but failed, so was pinned. 

Low-Down advanced and shot Wulf in the back but did no damage. 

Impetigo advanced and took a shot at a Johnny, dealing him 1 wound. 

Bubba used a jet pack to get behind Wulf and took a shot at him, dealing Wulf 1 wound. 

As that was the last chip out of the bag, not much point on trying to get it back inside. So that’s the end of the turn. 

TURN 3

The ex-Agents played Distraction, managing to pin both Impetigo and Low-Down but not Bubba. 

Then Johnny started the ball rolling by taking an Aimed Shot with a #4 Cartridge. Blast ammo! He only managed to Stun Low-Down but succeeded in incapacitating Bubba!! What?!

Johnny succeeded in putting his chip back in the bag. 

Low-Down managed to shake off his pin and used his first action to throw a Time Drogue... bringing back Bubba from the dead for the remainder of the turn! He then took a shot at Wolf... and missed!

Impetigo also shook off his pin and fired twice at Johnny, dealing him 1 wound and stunning him into the bargain!

The temporarily resurrected Bubba wasted no time in firing his Blazooga at Johnny who was too wounded to evade. The Blazooga landed a ridiculous SIX hits on Johnny! No where to run or hide as he could only roll 2 resist dice ... but wait! Wulf was within 3" of Johnny so decided to use Watch Out, Johnny and take the hit instead. Wulf, being less wounded, was able to roll 5 resist dice... and only managed to block 3 hits. Down went Wulf!

A shaken Johnny didn’t manage to remove his pin before he activated so with 2 hits and a stun on him, could only limp off to the table edge.

At the end of the turn... Bubba returned to his deceased state. 

The next turn will be interesting. If Johnny gets his chip first he can run off the table. If either of the Gang members get their chip out... that’s potentially at least another 2 shots at Johnny before he can try again. 

TURN 4

A kinda sorta anti-climax. Johnny got his chip out first and escaped, vowing to extract vengeance for his fallen comrade. 

AAR: This was a really weird scenario. As written... with a modicum of good dice rolls... the ex-Agents can run off the table on Turn 1, leaving Bubba and his gang flat footed. 

In fact, that’s what happened in my first go. The game ended in less than 10 minutes!

So I read the scenario rules again. No mistake, given a normal 3x3 table (and why wouldn’t you at such low points?). So my only options were : set up a 4x4 instead, giving the ex-Agents that much further to run ... or re-jig the scenario. 

I chose the latter. I used the rules for scenario 1, but swapped them around. This time it was the ex-Agents that had to roll for activation. That went a bit better and gave the Gang time to catch up. But even with that, Johnny and Wulf could’ve easily made it off the table any time after turn 2. There needs to be something else to hold them back ... ??

Still, the game was lots of fun and using the Time Drogue was outrageous and every bit in the spirit of the stories in 2000AD. And the ending... it was soooo true to the original story that these 3 pre-generated scenarios were based on: It's where the Bubba Gang creep up on the retired agents and manage to kill Wulf, leaving Johhny Alpha to escape (albeit wounded from torture) to vow vengeance for his fallen comrade.

Next: The Mutie!