CAMPAIGN TURN 5
As Shuihua and Skorn traverse the Outlands, they realise too late that they've strayed into a minefield from the Old War!!! Dang!
Thanks to Skorn's expertise they manage to find a way out. (Rolled a 6).
However, there’s no Loot to be had. (Failed the roll.)
But as they leave the minefield, the duo run into 5 Hooligans! They are Loud-mouths looking for excitement.
However, the Condition is: Brief encounter. The battle will only last 4 turns.
Since the Hooligans were whooping it up and making a lot of noise, the duo get the initiative. Skorn dashes towards a Suspicious Activity token (red circle)... which turns out to be 1 unit of Scrap.
Shuihua fires at the hooligans... and misses!
Turn 1
Skorn climbs the ruins again and takes a shot at the hooligans. She misses as they are darting in and out of the ruins that litter the battlefield.
All hooligans move forward and shoot at Skorn. All miss. (They only hit on unmodified 6's).
Turn 2
The Hooligans go first, firing wildly at Skorn. All miss. Again.
Shuihua wounds the hooligan with a hand cannon. Skorn dusts a hooligan who runs into cover. Very inconclusive turn.
Turn 3
Skorn reacts fast this time and kills a hooligan. A nearby hooligan loses her nerve and flees.
Skorn shifts position and shoots again. Dusts a hooligan who runs into cover, close enough to trigger a Suspicious Activity token. (Forgot to make SA roll at end of the previous round). Another scrap token!
The remaining Hooligans run forward. The one with the hand cannon reloads. The other Hooligan shoots at Skorn but misses.
Seeing these hooligans can’t hit the side of a barn door if they were standing next to it, Shuihua moves out of cover and shoots the hooligan with the hand cannon and puts him down. The other hooligan, seeing he’s the last remaining one, flees!
They hold the field! Hooligans: 3 dead, 2 fled.
Both get 1 XP.
Meilan levels up. Toughness 4!
Skorn gets +1XP for MVP
Loot is a measly scrap cannon and the revealed scrap tokens.
They leave the battlefield for a safer (relatively) location. As they bed down for the night, Shuihua notices they only have 2 days' rations remaining.
CAMPAIGN TURN 6
The next day's travel has the duo encounter 4 Petty Bandits. They are cautious looters and thieves. Not really up for a determined fight.
Condition: Bounty target Select a random opponent. If they are killed, make a bonus Minor Loot roll. (I think they mean Mundane Loot. I randomised the Bandits so I won't know which Bandit is the one I have to kill... until I do.)
Shuihua and Skorn don’t get the drop on the petty bandits.
Turn 1
Skorn advances and the Suspicious Activity turns out to be a critter! She shoots but the creature dodges!
Shuihua advances behind some ruins and doesn’t miss. The critter is down! That was a wasted turn.
The petty bandits advance cautiously and the 2nd Suspicious Activity token turns out to be… nothing! They don’t attack because the terrain is sparse and there’s not much cover for them to shoot behind until they advance closer to Shuihua’s tiny squad.
Turn 2
Shuihua Shuihua needs to move back into cover! She does so and shoots at a petty bandit but the cover saves him! Drat.
The petty bandits advance, keeping to cover but moving quickly all the same. They don’t have much LOS to Shuihua’s squad so can’t shoot.
Skorn climbs up the ruins (again!) and manages to down a petty bandit. The closest bandit loses his nerve and runs away! However, Skorn's weapon develops a weapon fault that she'll have to clear before she can shoot again.
Turn 3
Shuihua gets a bonus action! She dashes into LOS of a bandit while still keeping to cover.
She then advances some more, keeping to cover and tries a shot at a bandit. Misses!
Skorn manages to clear the weapon fault and then manages to down ANOTHER bandit!
The bandit that ran away continues to run! (Can’t get that double 2d6 failure for him to totally run off the table! Good thing too. It might be him that’s the random opponent.)
A bandit advances cautiously into cover and line of sight to Shuihua's squad but can’t shoot because he has a heavy weapon.
The bandit that keeps losing his nerve now returns and takes a pot shot at Skorn. He hits her but can’t overcome her toughness. Not having anywhere to run to, she stays where she is, maybe crouching down a bit.
Turn 4
Both Shuihua and Skorn get to activate before the bandits.
Skorn takes a shot at the closest bandit and neither cover nor toughness can help him! He’s down!
The final bandit runs off the table!!!!
And that bandit wasn’t the Bounty Target so the tiny squad get an extra mundane loot roll. Excellent!
+++
Post battle:
Both get 1XP but Skorn definitely is the MVP! +1 XP
Mundane Loot roll: got a bow. 🙄🙄
Normal Loot roll is: A cloud grenade. Sigh. It's SO hard to get any sort of armour!
Shuihua's tiny squad sleeps in the ruins. They have rations for 1 more day.
CAMPAIGN TURN 7
Continuing on their search for some sort of sanctuary in the Outlands, the duo have another encounter!
This time it's 6 Hunter bugs ... accompanied by 2 brutes!!! Oy!
That was an extremely crazy battle!
Shuihua and Skorn don’t get the drop but they do advance into cover and Meilan does manage to wound a hunter bug.
But then… it all goes pear shaped.
As the hunter bugs charge forward, one of the Suspicious Activity tokens turns into Something's Up (Remove the marker and place a new one 1D6+3” closer to the enemy table edge.) That places the Suspicious Activity token next to a Hunter Bug Brute which triggers... Reinforcements! (Remove the marker and place 2 new Enemies armed with the base weapon for their type. They are both placed in the center of the enemy table edge. They cannot act this turn.)
Then the hunter bugs trigger the other Suspicious Activity counter… which turns into On the prowl (Remove the marker and place a token at the nearest table edge. At the end of each game turn including the current, roll 1D6 for the token. On a 5+, 2 Enemy figures are placed on the token and it is removed. If you manage to move within 6” of the token before it is replaced, it is safely removed.)
Seeing the onrushing hordes and also seeing how tough it is to put down a hunter bug (need a 5+ for normal bugs and a 6+ for brutes) the duo opt to retreat. Hang any possible loot... their lives are all that matter!
Shuihua successfully gets out of the way and if it wasn’t for that crashed truck, would have had to deal with a Hunter Bug and the Brute! As it was, she manages to move out of their reach.
Skorn isn’t so lucky. (In story: she stumbled, or hesitated, torn between shooting the hunter bugs because she doesn’t like to surrender… or run away, and save her life.)
The hunter bugs surround her!
Now, here’s where the brawling combat gets interesting as the combat is resolved AFTER all movement and if more than 1 foe surrounds an enemy, you pick 2 and roll their brawling dice. As you can see, Skorn has the higher roll.
Add all modifiers for the final total, and the attacking side will chose the highest final modified score. The defender of course has no such choice. Thankfully, Skorn ended up with the highest! The bugs are pushed back (losing the combat) but even Skorn’s Heavy Melee Weapon can’t penetrate the hunter bug’s thick shells!
Being the victor, Skorn has the option to move 2” which she does! And since she activates after the hunter bugs, she runs off the table!
It’s a new round and Shuihua is left all alone on the table with menacing hunter bugs surrounding her! IF I went strictly by the RAW, this is what would have happened:
But since Shuihua is effectively operating solo again, I triggered the homebrewed solo rules I made and give her a bonus action that allows her to dash off the table just ahead of the hunter bugs!
Now, THAT was an unexpected conclusion to this battle encounter! Shuihua and Skorn get 1XP each just for surviving the encounter but nothing else.
They skirt the dangerous territory of the hunter bugs and camp for the night. Their rations are finished! There are between 1 to 4 more days of travel before they can reach a settlement. Will they make it? (I think I’ll home-brew a -1 to all abilities and skills for each day they don’t find rations, potentially going into -1 territory the longer they don’t eat.)
CAMPAIGN TURN 8
Ah! I decided to not take the suspense and drew the next card. It was the joker, meaning they’d reached a settlement they next just as their rations ran out!
+++
Wow, this game is great… the uncertainty of who and what you will meet as you travel through the Outlands, plus that card draw mechanic stolen inspired by the ‘Graves (Star and Frost) and Silver Bayonet really makes the journey tense and interesting. It’s really good for a solo game as even I don’t know what will happen in each Campaign Turn!
I’ll KIV this session for now as I want to get some more berserkers and outcasts painted, and also finish off my JOTL campaign. hope that was a fun journey for you folks.
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