Heres a quick battle report I just played using Rogue Trader as my ruleset. Apologies for the slightly blurry pics but my camera seems to be rubbish at taking battle shots!
I decided to play a game using Rogue trader first as it is the ruleset I am most familiar with. After statting up a couple of small forces I rolled on the random plot generator which resulted in the gae being a raid and capture (or rescue) of an important person or item.
Selecting the relevent table I rolled again to see what the specific scenario would be and the result was:
A planets govenor sends a force of troops to raid a museum on another world and steam an important work of art. Is the govenor an enthusiastic collector of object d’art or does he know something? Could the item contain secret plans, a treasure map or some unfathomable secret. If so, is the govenor the only interested party or will the thieves find themselves persued by other collectors?
This is a perfect scenario for Slippery Jim diGriz and could easily form a mini campaign with scenarios based around the players sneaking onto the planet, the robbery, getaway and possible final stand off.
Forces could consist of police and security types, the goveners thieves, another criminal organisation or a plethora of other groups ranging from pirates to the Special Corps itself!
I settled for the single game thus far deciding that Slippery Jim had managed to get on to the planet with some assorted muscle without attracting attention.
Setup
The game needed several items: a building to house the priceless object along with suitable scenics, figures to represent the assorted forces and a more detailed set of objectives for the players.
The building, scenics and figures were easy to arrange but the objectives needed set out as follows:
Slippery Jims team. Your objective is to break into the building, disable any guards and bypass any security features and steal the artifact. Once this has been done you must get away by moving off the table edge of your deployment zone.
Security team: Your objective is to stop anyone from pilfering from the museum. The building is alarmed and locked and if the alarm is sounded you can rely on the local law to turn up pretty quickly to help chace down the crims!
Notes:
The buildings alarm and locking mechanism need to be disabled, this can be done by either stealing a guards pass key (which they keep about their person at all times) or by breaking in. In order to do this you must spend an entire turn in base to base contact with the building and pass an intelligence check in order to figure out how to disable the alarm. Once that is done its just a case of breaking in! If you have the pass key you can simply open the door, otherwise you need to pass another inelligence check to pick the lock. The other opion is to blow the door off its hinges (it has a toughness of 6 and 3 hits) If you fail an intelligence test at any point the alarm will sound as it will if the doors are blown.
The police will turn up on a roll of 5+ the turn after the alarm is raised, 4+ the turn after that and 2+ the turn after that.
Slippery Jim has been hired to perform the heist but has been lumbered with some of Cassitors thuggish minions. He will happily knock out and leave these villainous types as he believes the dastadly Count has instructed them to kill hime once he gets the artifact.
The Forces:
The Thieves
Slippery Jim diGriz, armed with needle pistol, bolt pistol, crack, smoke, blind and knock out grenades and flak armour, respirator and eye protecting contacts
79.5 points
Kurt, an officer, armed with needle pistol, stub pistol, crack grenades, hand weapon and flak armour
27.5 points
6 Thuggish minions of Count Cassitor, armed with needle pistols, hand weapons and flak armour
39 points
Total: 146 points
Security Forces
1 Guard Sergeant armed with mesh armour, shotgun, hand weapon and shield
4 Security guards armed with mesh armour, stub pistol, hand weapon and shield
46.5 points
Police re-enforcements
1 Police Sergeant armed with mesh armour, bolt pistol, hand weapon and shield
2 Police Troopers arned with mesh armour, bolt pistols, hand weapons and shields
2 Police Troopers armed with mesh armour, shotguns, hand weapons and shields
54 points
1 Law Enforcement Droid armed with bolt pistol with targeter, webber and 6 doses of web solvent
35 points
1 Police skimmer armed with webgun
66.5 points
Total: 202 points
The Game!
The Table!
I had quite a few bits of scenery lying about and the game itself was played on a 4x3 foot board.
The Objective!
The game started with Slippery Jim leading one group of thuggish types while Kurt lead the others. The guards were on a pre-determined patrol pattern and would only spot the thieves on a roll of 6+ at over 24 inches, 5+ at 12-24 inches and 4+ under that.
Slippery Jim Sneaking Towards The Target Building!
Jim lead his group along the back of the shanty buildings in an attempt to keep them out of sight of the security guards while Kurts group moved towards the target building behind the patches of trees to the right of the area.
Things seemed to be going smoothly until one of Jims group ended his movement out of cover and the security guard manning the gate spotted him. Calling to one of his friends the security guard raiised the alarm. It was now only a matter of time until police re-enforcements arrived!
Kurts Thugs Lurking In The Undergrowth
Seeing that Jims group had been spotted Kurt and his men broke cover and moved towards the main gate and sprayed the security guard with needle pistols but his heavy armour stopped their tranquiliser darts. Jims group hurried towards the guard as well and fired their pistols while jim attempted to hurl a knock out grenade at them. Unfortunately Jims aim was off and the gas exploded harmlessly in the roadway while the needle pistols of the thugs also failed to penetrate the armoured hide of the guard.
At this point all the guards rushed to the main gate and opened fire at the two groups of thieves but due to some truely bad dice rolling they didnt hit anyone. The roll was made for police re-enforcements but none turned up.
Kurt lost patience with his puny needle pistol and drew his stub pistol and fired sending one guard sprawling to lie motionless on the ground at the gateway. All the remaining thugs fired needle pistols but only one managed to knock out a guard with a lucky shot. Jim seeing the guard fall began to have his doubts about the possibiliy of completing the heist and swore that Kurt wouldnt get away with the slaying.
Worse was to follow as the guards opened fire with everything they had but failing to hit anything (possibly due to their portly nature and perviously cushy job or in the panic of seeing thier freinds fall) Again the call went out for re-enforcements but nothing turned up. Seizing the inititative Kurt and his thugs hurled themselves at the remaining guard at the gate while Jims thugs joined the action by scrambling over the hedge into melee with the guards lurking behind it.
A Nasty Brawl
Jim launched himself over the hedge but not before Kurt shot the guard sergeant and the thugs knocked out one of the two remaining guards. The last securiy guard decided that discretion was the better part of valor and legged it with Jims group of thugs in hot pursuit. They promptly chased the unfortunate guard off the table and were lost from play too.
The Law Arrives!
At this point Jim headed to the building entrance and started setting up an explosive charge to blow the door off its hinges. Unfortunately the police chose that very moment to arrive. A squad of them along with a law enforcement droid turned up on the road next to the compound and were soon exchanging fire with Kurts group. In the exchange Kurt dropped the police sergeant with his stub pistol only to be ensnared by the droids web gun. His remaining thugs were either gunned down or tried to run away.
Seeing the police making mincemeat of his compatriots and hearing the sound of a police hover disk approaching from behind Jim set off a smoke grenade to cover his escape cursing Count Cassitor for lumbering him with a group of bloodthirsty thugs. On the plus side Kurt had been captured and during the melee he had thoughtfully pocketed one of the guards security ID maybe he would make another attempt on the artifact but now it was more important to find somewhere to hole up until the police search had passed.
Conclusion!
The game itself proved to be quite a lot of fun although Jim could have done with some more luck. It played well and was simple too which is a definite plus. I think the characters in the game could have done with some re-rolls as the whole point is that Slippery Jim is a hero and can perform all sorts of heroic actions. As it turned out he got sidelined as Kurt and the thugs just blasted away at the security types (he couldnt even hit anyone with his grenades or needle gun!)
The early raising of the alarm was unfortunate but I had been a bit careless with the thugs having thought the security types wouldnt manage to spot him. It just goes to show what happens when Jim isnt left to get on with things himself!
Still it was a fun game and could easily lead to a mini campaign. Does Jim make another attempt at the artifact while dodging police patrols. Does Count Cassitor send some assassins to silence our hero (or to stop Kurt from blabbing!)
All very exciting and hopefully I will be able to play out a few more scenarios!
