Once again, last night, Mark Rapson, of Word Forge Games, and I threw down and tested some more scenarios from WFG’s forthcoming Kickstarter The Devils Run:Route 666.
Last week we tested the first of the Brit Attack Muggy scenarios where a fleet/swarm/bunch of Brit Attack Muggys attacked a convoy of Hauls Angels vehicles to cripple and steal an objective from one of them. This week saw us complete the Muggy scenarios with the follow-up “Blew The Bloody Doors Off!”. This scenario saw the remaining Brit Attack Muggys (we lost poor departed Ronald RIP to a long dive off a bridge into a river….may he rest in peace) of Michael, Charlie, Keith and Bill attempt to escape with their hard captured booty through a tunnel and off the end of the 5th tile. As long as Charlie made it off I would win. The plan was simple….keep those Hauls Angels off Charlie whilst he made a run for it.
Charlie could not be the target of ranged attacks if he was within 1-2 squares of any other Muggy, Michael added +2 to all other Muggy Evade rolls if within 1-2 of another Muggy, Keith was more difficult to hit as he adds +2 to all BS tests against him and Bill allows all Muggys ahead of him to re-roll a single failed Ballistic Skill (BS) dice per turn. Knowing what my boys could do I set out my stall. Bill would bring up the rear using his twin linked minigun turret to fire behind and keep anyone approaching off the Muggy’s sixes whilst improving everyone elses attacks. I didn’t expect to attack much as the majority of my Muggys can only fire directly ahead although they can be all fitted with the turret. Charlie would be central with Keith and Michael sat either side stopping the Hauls Angels from swiping him. Seems simple innit?
The game started and it seemed to be going to plan. Again the Brit Attack Minis were every bit as good as I (a huge Mini fanboy) had hoped and they do not disappoint. Charlie was untouchable as he kept another mini close at all times. This meant that Marks Hauls Angels would target the other minis first. Bill was the first to fall but the aim of this scenario was not for me to escape with all my cars…..just Charlie. He was my priority so the other guys could be sacrificed if necessary. Bill went down first.
Keith was targetted next but despite Mark doing everything he could to side swipe him off the road Keith rolled an amazing Armour roll of 2 or less on a d10 no less that 3 times in a row to reduce the damage from one of Marks cars to a single Chassis Point (CP)!!! Keither even had the lowest Armour (A) of any of the Muggys and couldnt rely on Ronalds Armour (A) re-roll as he was brown bread guv!
I was using the intervening terrain to weave and evade the slower Hauls Angels vehicles. I wasnt affected by rough ground nor did I pay a penalty for moving diagonally which meant I kept my speed up and simple blasted off down the board hiding behind rough ground to slow Marks relentless assault.
Keith evaded and escaped the clutches of Hauls Angels with superior speed and maneuverability eventually catching up with Charlie and acting as his wingman as they escaped through the tunnel to freedom!
Victory to Brit Attack again!
With plenty of time left we setup another new scenario involving Justice chasing down some of the Laws Haulage gang. Justice are a primarily female led gang inspired by the teachings of St Michael and Justice. Over time their methods have become more brutal and they really do have some nasty and neat tricks to tackle the enemy. I had thier Leader, Cadence on a bike armed with a Harpoon called “The Gatherer” which not only removes Chassis Points (CP) but also Armour (A) when it hits thus making the defensive capabilities of the target even worse. A very nasty weapon indeed and this would become important as she had a mission to track and catch the lead Laws Haulage vehicle. No other member of Justice could attack it. To help he in this she had a special rule meaning any Laws haulage vehicle had to take a target priority test before they could used a ranged attack against her. If they failed they could not target her.
I also had two junior members of the Justice gang and an Executioner. This badass Valkyrie nutcase wields a huge sword and can really put the hurt on if she gets close doing 4 Damage per hit!!!
Collectively all my Judges could completely remove a vehicle from the game if they took off more than 50% of the remaining Chassis Points (CP) in a single turn so high damage weapons start that ball rolling and supporting Judges can then remove 2 or 3 hits and completely take out the vehicle. This is a great mechanic for the weaker bikers of Justice.
First round saw the Executioner strip 4 hits off a Laws haulage biker before a lower judge finished them off. Cadence tore some armour off her target and reduced his overall Chassis Points. My remaining two bikes ganged up on Marks second bike and took it down reducing it to a smouldering wreck on the road. Next turn the Executioner did her thing again lopping the head off the passenger on the Laws Haulage Trike armed with a Flamer. This was good as I hugely fear that trike mounted flamer. You get no defence against it.
With one vehicle completely removed and two smouldering wreck blocking the road Mark decided to make a run for it and race away hoping to lose Cadence.
A lucky recovery/repair roll (roll 3 d6 and if 2 are gained your downed vehicle is back and can move its Minimum Move (MM), if 3 are gained I.E. a 666, then the vehicle is back and can take actions normally) brought Marks trike back into the game. He slammed on the brakes hoping to smash into the Executioner but she evaded leaving him to be left for dust behind.
Rather than give the trike a free shot at the Executioner I too slammed on my brakes and moved behind him to attempt an attack using that devastating sword. This would leave me vulnerable to being left behind as the game progressed.*
*As vehicles move forwards the last tile is moved from the back and adds to the “rolling road” effect so essentially the road is always changing. This means any vehicle left on the rearmost tile when it moves is lost permanently and left behind.
When Marks target car moved off the third tile both the Laws haulage trike and my Executioner were left behind and lost. It wasn’t an issue as she had accounted for 3 casualties and couldn’t actually target Marks car….only Cadence could. She was only a few squares back sitting in his blindspot and stopping him from slamming on his brakes and taking her out. My remaining two bikers sat just behind as wingmen now that the Executioner was gone and Mark had no other vehicles remaining.
Slowly but surely each hit from Cadences Harpoon stripped more Chassis Points (CP) and Armour (A) from the Laws Haulage car until with one final killing (Critical no less!) blow she took him out.
Victory for my Justice as Cadence and the Executioner proved what psychopathic badass Valkyries on bikes they were and wrecked everything in sight.
We decided that perhaps the bikes were too fragile because had Mark successfully achieved a swipe or ram on my bikes they would almost certainly have been destroyed or in a very bad way. We also determined that the Executioners sword whilst fun was ridiculous and simply did too much damage if it hit. We tweaked some numbers and ran some math and Mark took away some new stats to test another day. i think the Justice will appeal to anyone who likes “the Eldar” way of doing business. Hit hard, hit fast but dont be built for attrition. You know you’ve taken a hit off them but if you get into good positions and can target them you will kill them. I await further Justice expansions to see what effects they have. they work well as a team and there are some truly tasty buffs between them. I think Mark is 100% right that the Executioner is unaffected by some of the rules that buff Judges otherwise she’d be a little OP. As it was she needed a tweak or it was simply too powerful.
Onwards and upwards for Mark, Word Forge Games and my other project The Hairy Gamers as we all head to Dragonmeet in London at the weekend to either exhibit our games or loiter and make nuisances of ourselves. Hairy Gamer Tris and I will be at the WFG stand at some point to take in some demo time. Come say “Hi” to us and the WFG Guys.
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