For this year's big game the organizer has asked everyone to come up with 3 lists.
When we get closer to the date he will tell everyone which list they should bring.
Its an attempt to balance the points on each table.
He's asked us to make a 4,000, 5,000, and 6,000 point list.
What I've done is come up with a 4,000 point 'core' list and then add on to make a 5,000 and then a 6,000 point list. The only things he asks of the lists is that there is a minimum of 1 HQ and 4 troops.
Here is my 4,000 point 'core' list:
HQ -
Asterion Moloc Master of the Minotaurs
235 pts
Elites -
7 assault terminators
280 pts
in a land raider crusader with a multimelta
260 pts
Ironclad Dreadnought with chainfist, close combat weapon, 2 hunter-killer missiles
155 pts
Ironclad Dreadnought with chainfist, close combat weapon, 2 hunter-killer missiles
155 pts
Ironclad Dreadnought with chainfist, close combat weapon, 2 hunter-killer missiles
155 pts
Troops -
9 marines with a meltagun and multimelta
1 sargent with powerfist
in rhino
235 pts
9 marines with a meltagun and multimelta
1 sargent with powerfist
in rhino
235 pts
9 marines with a meltagun and multimelta
1 sargent with powerfist
in rhino
235 pts
9 marines with a meltagun and multimelta
1 sargent with powerfist
in rhino
235 pts
Fast Attack -
9 vanguard vets with 2 power weapons no jump packs
1 sargent with powerfist
265 pts
9 vanguard vets with 2 power weapons no jump packs
1 sargent with powerfist
265 pts
Landspeeder with multimelta and heavy flamer
70 pts
Landspeeder with multimelta and heavy flamer
70 pts
Heavy Support -
Land Raider Redeemer with multi-melta
250 pts
Land Raider Redeemer with multi-melta
250 pts
Land Raider Achilles
325 pts
Land Raider Achilles
325 pts
4000 pts total
ADD 1,000 pts
HQ -
Librarian with Nullzone and The Avenger
100 pts
High Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi
145 pts
Elites -
6 Sternguard with 3 combi-plasmas and 2 plasmaguns
in rhino
220 pts
7 assault terminators
280 pts
Heavy Support -
Predator with autocannon and 2 heavy bolters
85 pts
Predator with autocannon and 2 heavy bolters
85 pts
Predator with autocannon and 2 heavy bolters
85 pts
ADD 1,000 pts
HQ -
Librarian in terminator armour and storm shield, Null Zone and The Avenger
140 pts
Elites -
Land Raider Proteus with multi-melta, twinlinked heavy bolter, extra armour, armoured ceramite, dozer blade
290 pts
Dreadnought with 2 twin-linked autocannons
125 pts
Dreadnought with 2 twin-linked autocannons
125 pts
Dreadnought with multi-melta and cc arm
105 pts
Dreadnought with multi-melta and cc arm
105 pts
Fast Attack -
Land Speeder with Typhoon Missile Launcher and heavy bolter
90 pts
I have been working on finishing up the units I need for these lists. All I have left to finish is the 3 Ironclads, two Land Raider Redeemers, 2 vanguard veteran squads, Chaplain Enkomi, and two Land Raider Achilles.
The two Redeemers are almost done being painted. The two Vanguard Vet squads are almost done as well. Champlain Enkomi is base coated. The three Ironclad's are mostly assembled and I have to still purchase the two Achilles which I will do next week once I get my tax returns.
I will share pics once I take them.
Laters.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Mechanicus Requium: Big Game 2012
Mechanicus Requium:
The Fall of Treanda IV
My gaming group's annual Big Game is almost here! The weekend of February 25th is the date. This year we have someone new designing the game. He hasn't done a Big Game yet.
Luckily I am not doing it again. I did last year's Big Game and it turned out great but I put in a ton of work. It was a project where every day after work i would come home and build and paint for at least 3 hours a day. I did this for probably 3 or 4 months. I don't envy my friend's work on this year's game, but I am looking forward to playing in it.
His ideas for this year's game sound very cool and also fairly straight forward. Nothing too complicated which is good when you get 20 or more guys in a room rolling dice at the same time. The simpler the game the better the game.
The tables for this year's game are shaping up to be pretty awesome. There are 4 "island" tables connected by one bridge each to a central table where a large Mechanicus Facility is located. The central table also has a defensive wall/line where the Imperials will be holding back a force of orks that will probably be close 20,000 points.
There are models called 'menials' that the Imperial defenders will need to corral onto the main board from the 4 side bards to save them from the attack by Chaos and other Xenos forces. The attacking Chaos/Xenos forces are attempting to stop the 'menials' from escaping.
That is pretty much the main jist of the game.
Here are some shots of a table in progress:
This is the map of the whole layout:
On the map above the red lines on the outside of the islands represent landing zones where the attacker may each deploy there armies they are each supposed to be roughly 2 feet long. 2 of these lines per attacking player per island is where they can move onto the tables from.
The army I will be playing is Minotaur Space Marines. I am an attacker so my teammates will all be Xenos or Chaos. I need to come up with a fluff reason as to why I am attacking an Adeptus Mechanicus Facility.
I came up with the idea that perhaps its a political dispute between a particular High Lord of Terra with the particular branch of the Mechanicus that operates this facility. There was maybe a breach in negotiations for specific STC vehicles or weapons that would be manufactured and delivered to a region that the High Lord had ties to. I will expound on that idea in a future post I think.
The organizer of this Big Game wants us all to come up with 3 different army lists. They should be 4,000 points, 5,000 points, and 6,000 points. He wants us to do this so that when we are ready for the game, people can be playing against equal sized forces. I might end up playing a 4,000 point army and so is the other guy on my team on my table. Our opponents on the other side will then also have 8,000 points total.
I've come up with a 4,000 point army and additions to it to bring it to 5,000 and 6,000 points.
I will post these lists in a later blog post because I don't the lists on me at the moment.
Until next time.
The Fall of Treanda IV
My gaming group's annual Big Game is almost here! The weekend of February 25th is the date. This year we have someone new designing the game. He hasn't done a Big Game yet.
Luckily I am not doing it again. I did last year's Big Game and it turned out great but I put in a ton of work. It was a project where every day after work i would come home and build and paint for at least 3 hours a day. I did this for probably 3 or 4 months. I don't envy my friend's work on this year's game, but I am looking forward to playing in it.
His ideas for this year's game sound very cool and also fairly straight forward. Nothing too complicated which is good when you get 20 or more guys in a room rolling dice at the same time. The simpler the game the better the game.
The tables for this year's game are shaping up to be pretty awesome. There are 4 "island" tables connected by one bridge each to a central table where a large Mechanicus Facility is located. The central table also has a defensive wall/line where the Imperials will be holding back a force of orks that will probably be close 20,000 points.
There are models called 'menials' that the Imperial defenders will need to corral onto the main board from the 4 side bards to save them from the attack by Chaos and other Xenos forces. The attacking Chaos/Xenos forces are attempting to stop the 'menials' from escaping.
That is pretty much the main jist of the game.
Here are some shots of a table in progress:
This is the map of the whole layout:
On the map above the red lines on the outside of the islands represent landing zones where the attacker may each deploy there armies they are each supposed to be roughly 2 feet long. 2 of these lines per attacking player per island is where they can move onto the tables from.
The army I will be playing is Minotaur Space Marines. I am an attacker so my teammates will all be Xenos or Chaos. I need to come up with a fluff reason as to why I am attacking an Adeptus Mechanicus Facility.
I came up with the idea that perhaps its a political dispute between a particular High Lord of Terra with the particular branch of the Mechanicus that operates this facility. There was maybe a breach in negotiations for specific STC vehicles or weapons that would be manufactured and delivered to a region that the High Lord had ties to. I will expound on that idea in a future post I think.
The organizer of this Big Game wants us all to come up with 3 different army lists. They should be 4,000 points, 5,000 points, and 6,000 points. He wants us to do this so that when we are ready for the game, people can be playing against equal sized forces. I might end up playing a 4,000 point army and so is the other guy on my team on my table. Our opponents on the other side will then also have 8,000 points total.
I've come up with a 4,000 point army and additions to it to bring it to 5,000 and 6,000 points.
I will post these lists in a later blog post because I don't the lists on me at the moment.
Until next time.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
New Minotaurs 1850 list
After playing in the GBU tournament last Saturday I have been thinking about my list and I've decided that the 1850 list I brought there was not the best list I could have taken.
I had difficulty in dealing with 2+ armour saves both at long ranges and at shorter ranges. I have come up with a new list that incorporates plasma and and lascannons that I think may be better at dealing with units like mega nobs and terminators.
here goes:
HQ -
120 - Master of the Forge with conversion beamer
Elites -
125 Dreadnought with 2 twin-linked autocannons
125 Dreadnought with 2 twin-linked autocannons
115 Dreadnought with multimelta and heavy flamer
Troops -
105 4 scouts with camo cloaks and sniper rifles and one missile launcher
1 Sargent with camo cloak sniper rifle and melta bombs
180 4 marines
1 Sargent with combi-flamer
in Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
180 4 marines
1 Sargent with combi-flamer
in Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
180 4 marines
1 Sargent with combi-flamer
in Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
180 4 marines
1 Sargent with combi-flamer
in Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
Fast Attack -
90 Landspeeder with Typhoon Missile Launcher and Heavy Bolter
90 Landspeeder with Typhoon Missile Launcher and Heavy Bolter
Heavy Support -
115 Dreadnought with multimelta and heavy flamer
120 Predator with Autocannon and 2 lascannon sponsons
120 Predator with Autocannon and 2 lascannon sponsons
1845pts total
So I have long range ap2 in the form for 8 lascannons and one conversion beamer. I have short range ap2 with 4 twin-linked plasma guns and 2 multimeltas. I have now 6 flamer templates and I still have 4 missile launcher shots and 6 autocannons.
I will need to play test this list but I like it a lot.
I don't like to copy/paste lists from other websites but I try and take ideas from them and make my own lists. I do look at Stelek's and Kirby's sites alot for list ideas.
What do people think of this list?
I had difficulty in dealing with 2+ armour saves both at long ranges and at shorter ranges. I have come up with a new list that incorporates plasma and and lascannons that I think may be better at dealing with units like mega nobs and terminators.
here goes:
HQ -
120 - Master of the Forge with conversion beamer
Elites -
125 Dreadnought with 2 twin-linked autocannons
125 Dreadnought with 2 twin-linked autocannons
115 Dreadnought with multimelta and heavy flamer
Troops -
105 4 scouts with camo cloaks and sniper rifles and one missile launcher
1 Sargent with camo cloak sniper rifle and melta bombs
180 4 marines
1 Sargent with combi-flamer
in Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
180 4 marines
1 Sargent with combi-flamer
in Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
180 4 marines
1 Sargent with combi-flamer
in Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
180 4 marines
1 Sargent with combi-flamer
in Razorback with lascannon and twin-linked plasmagun
Fast Attack -
90 Landspeeder with Typhoon Missile Launcher and Heavy Bolter
90 Landspeeder with Typhoon Missile Launcher and Heavy Bolter
Heavy Support -
115 Dreadnought with multimelta and heavy flamer
120 Predator with Autocannon and 2 lascannon sponsons
120 Predator with Autocannon and 2 lascannon sponsons
1845pts total
So I have long range ap2 in the form for 8 lascannons and one conversion beamer. I have short range ap2 with 4 twin-linked plasma guns and 2 multimeltas. I have now 6 flamer templates and I still have 4 missile launcher shots and 6 autocannons.
I will need to play test this list but I like it a lot.
I don't like to copy/paste lists from other websites but I try and take ideas from them and make my own lists. I do look at Stelek's and Kirby's sites alot for list ideas.
What do people think of this list?
Monday, January 23, 2012
GBU V Results!
So this past Saturday I played in the Good The Bad and the Ugly V tournament and I did ok. I am not really a hardcore tournament player. I probably play in about 3 a year, usually really small local tournaments.
I should probably explain the reason I play in tournaments before I go any further.
I am a very competitive person when it comes to games. I play pool to win everytime, no matter who I am playing or where I am playing. Whenever i play a board game or card game or Magic or 40k I am the same way.
I enjoy the competition and in 40k tournaments I enjoy a very rigid style of playing where the rules are set in stone. The scenarios are very specific and its winner take all. I really enjoy playing this way. I do not enjoy demolishing my opponent as much as having a close fought game where I come out on top though.
I also enjoy a more relaxed environment which my Book of the Arbitrator games illustrate. I actually don't know which environment I prefer honestly.
Anyway, on to the results!
I played the Space Marine list that is in my previous post. I had some grand idea that with this list I could win games and show people that the vanilla codex was still competitive. Well I won one out of three.
The list I used has some large weaknesses. I feel theres not enough ap2 in the list. I think adding plasma guns and lascannons would add a lot to the list. I have some ideas on how to do this. I might post a new list tomorrow or some thing.
The first game illustrated nicely how weak this list is against death stars. I played against an ork army that had 2 units of meganobs. a 5 man with Grotsnik and a 9 man led by a warboss. These two units I could not kill.
His army consisted of the 5 nobs and Grotsnik in a trukk, the 9 man and warboss in a battlewagon, a 25 man squad of ard boyz, a 30 man squad of boyz, and i think only a 15 man squad of lootas. Not alot of units, but all he needed against me were really the nobs.
I blew up both of his vehicles almost immediately. I couldn't then kill enough of the orks from then on part of the scenario was kill points and those were the only two I ever got. I was able to make it a game because of my skimmers and rhinos moving to contest objectives. I only lost by like 4 or 5 battle points. I could have been worse.
My opponent in this game however was fantastic. He's the kind of guy that I would easily have over to my place for a few beers and some dice rolling any time. Great guy all around.
My second game was against Dark Eldar. This match up I was looking forward to. I have always done well against the Deldar. I know how to play them and have even almost tabled them before even with my chaos marine army.
This game was the best by far of the three games. It was an incredibly intense game. The first three turns were all me I was blowing up skimmers and killing those pesky Deldar troops like it was going out of style. Turns 4 and five the game totally swung in his favor and I thought for sure I would lose the game. It went to seven turns and it went all the way down to the last five minutes and I came back.
The game ended with me losing the primary objective but winning the secondary and tertiary and pulling out a small 9 to 8 win.
Great game, decent guy. I'd play him at a game store night any time.
The third game was against the new Necrons. It was my first game against the new codex and I wasn't sure what to expect. He took Imotek the Storm Lord. Imotek was the only reason I didn't blast him off the table. If we hadn't played night fight for the first 4 turns I would would have done much better. I lost that game 21 to 7.
For the third year in a row the Bad team won. It is really surprising that they would do so good when everyone on the interwebz says that the most powerful codexes are Imperial ones. Oh well.
My Impressions:
Positives:
- Good people to play against
- Good Prize Support (Everyone on the winning team each year gets a box of GW figs in addition to all the individual prizes.)
- Good Terrain: well painted and was relatively easy to play with. (In fact I found out afterwards that most of the terrain there was brought up from Chicago and will be used at Adepticon this year.)
- Plenty of time per game (We had 2.5 hours per game for 1850pt games.)
Negatives:
- Players choice should have been separate from painting prize not added together
- Lighting was poor for about half the tables (But the space was free courtesy of the game shop that gave the organizers the space for the event. I can't really complain.)
I will be playing again next year if I can.
I came away from this tourney realizing that I haven't come up with a list I like at 1850 yet for my Marines. I will have to keep working on it.
Look for more updates with new lists soon!
Thanks for reading!
I should probably explain the reason I play in tournaments before I go any further.
I am a very competitive person when it comes to games. I play pool to win everytime, no matter who I am playing or where I am playing. Whenever i play a board game or card game or Magic or 40k I am the same way.
I enjoy the competition and in 40k tournaments I enjoy a very rigid style of playing where the rules are set in stone. The scenarios are very specific and its winner take all. I really enjoy playing this way. I do not enjoy demolishing my opponent as much as having a close fought game where I come out on top though.
I also enjoy a more relaxed environment which my Book of the Arbitrator games illustrate. I actually don't know which environment I prefer honestly.
Anyway, on to the results!
I played the Space Marine list that is in my previous post. I had some grand idea that with this list I could win games and show people that the vanilla codex was still competitive. Well I won one out of three.
The list I used has some large weaknesses. I feel theres not enough ap2 in the list. I think adding plasma guns and lascannons would add a lot to the list. I have some ideas on how to do this. I might post a new list tomorrow or some thing.
The first game illustrated nicely how weak this list is against death stars. I played against an ork army that had 2 units of meganobs. a 5 man with Grotsnik and a 9 man led by a warboss. These two units I could not kill.
His army consisted of the 5 nobs and Grotsnik in a trukk, the 9 man and warboss in a battlewagon, a 25 man squad of ard boyz, a 30 man squad of boyz, and i think only a 15 man squad of lootas. Not alot of units, but all he needed against me were really the nobs.
I blew up both of his vehicles almost immediately. I couldn't then kill enough of the orks from then on part of the scenario was kill points and those were the only two I ever got. I was able to make it a game because of my skimmers and rhinos moving to contest objectives. I only lost by like 4 or 5 battle points. I could have been worse.
My opponent in this game however was fantastic. He's the kind of guy that I would easily have over to my place for a few beers and some dice rolling any time. Great guy all around.
My second game was against Dark Eldar. This match up I was looking forward to. I have always done well against the Deldar. I know how to play them and have even almost tabled them before even with my chaos marine army.
This game was the best by far of the three games. It was an incredibly intense game. The first three turns were all me I was blowing up skimmers and killing those pesky Deldar troops like it was going out of style. Turns 4 and five the game totally swung in his favor and I thought for sure I would lose the game. It went to seven turns and it went all the way down to the last five minutes and I came back.
The game ended with me losing the primary objective but winning the secondary and tertiary and pulling out a small 9 to 8 win.
Great game, decent guy. I'd play him at a game store night any time.
The third game was against the new Necrons. It was my first game against the new codex and I wasn't sure what to expect. He took Imotek the Storm Lord. Imotek was the only reason I didn't blast him off the table. If we hadn't played night fight for the first 4 turns I would would have done much better. I lost that game 21 to 7.
For the third year in a row the Bad team won. It is really surprising that they would do so good when everyone on the interwebz says that the most powerful codexes are Imperial ones. Oh well.
My Impressions:
Positives:
- Good people to play against
- Good Prize Support (Everyone on the winning team each year gets a box of GW figs in addition to all the individual prizes.)
- Good Terrain: well painted and was relatively easy to play with. (In fact I found out afterwards that most of the terrain there was brought up from Chicago and will be used at Adepticon this year.)
- Plenty of time per game (We had 2.5 hours per game for 1850pt games.)
Negatives:
- Players choice should have been separate from painting prize not added together
- Lighting was poor for about half the tables (But the space was free courtesy of the game shop that gave the organizers the space for the event. I can't really complain.)
I will be playing again next year if I can.
I came away from this tourney realizing that I haven't come up with a list I like at 1850 yet for my Marines. I will have to keep working on it.
Look for more updates with new lists soon!
Thanks for reading!
Friday, January 20, 2012
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly V
This weekend is the GBU V. Its the fifth year in a row of this local tournament. I have played in it the last 3 years. Its pretty fun and is probably the largest local tournament.
The way it works is that there are three groups of players each group will only play people in one of the other two groups.
The Good: All Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Sister of Battle, Grey Knights
The Bad: Chaos Marines, Choas Demons, Dark Eldar, Tyranids
The Ugly: Orks, Tau, Necron, Eldar
Here is the website: http://adeptusbrewcity.webeasysite.us/
Every time I've played in it I've played my Iron Warriors, well this year I will play on the good team with my Minotaur Space Marines. It will be a vanilla marine codex army.
Here is the list:
1850Pts – Space Marines Roster
1 Space Marine Librarian in Power Armour, 100 pts (Null Zone; Vortex of Doom)
4 Sternguard, 185 pts (Combi-Plasma x2; Plasma Gun x1)
1 Sargeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Plasma x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
1 Dreadnought, 125 pts (Twin-Linked Autocannon; Twin-Linked Autocannon)
1 Dreadnought, 125 pts (Twin-Linked Autocannon; Twin-Linked Autocannon)
9 Tactical Squad, 220 pts (Meltagun; Missile Launcher)
1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
9 Tactical Squad, 220 pts (Meltagun; Missile Launcher)
1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
9 Tactical Squad, 220 pts (Meltagun; Missile Launcher)
1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
9 Tactical Squad, 220 pts (Meltagun; Missile Launcher)
1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
1 Land Speeder, 90 pts (Heavy Bolter x1; Typhoon Missile Launcher x1)
1 Land Speeder, 90 pts (Heavy Bolter x1; Typhoon Missile Launcher x1)
1 Predator, 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))
1 Predator, 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))
1 Predator, 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))
Total Roster Cost: 1850
I don't know if I like the Sternguard squad or not. If I got rid of it I would add a MM land speeder and another rifleman dread. I would also change the Librarian's powers to null zone and gate of infinity.
I won't be able to finish another dreadnought tonight though, so I think this will be my list.
Let me know what you think.
The way it works is that there are three groups of players each group will only play people in one of the other two groups.
The Good: All Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Sister of Battle, Grey Knights
The Bad: Chaos Marines, Choas Demons, Dark Eldar, Tyranids
The Ugly: Orks, Tau, Necron, Eldar
Here is the website: http://adeptusbrewcity.webeasysite.us/
Every time I've played in it I've played my Iron Warriors, well this year I will play on the good team with my Minotaur Space Marines. It will be a vanilla marine codex army.
Here is the list:
1850Pts – Space Marines Roster
1 Space Marine Librarian in Power Armour, 100 pts (Null Zone; Vortex of Doom)
4 Sternguard, 185 pts (Combi-Plasma x2; Plasma Gun x1)
1 Sargeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Plasma x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
1 Dreadnought, 125 pts (Twin-Linked Autocannon; Twin-Linked Autocannon)
1 Dreadnought, 125 pts (Twin-Linked Autocannon; Twin-Linked Autocannon)
9 Tactical Squad, 220 pts (Meltagun; Missile Launcher)
1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
9 Tactical Squad, 220 pts (Meltagun; Missile Launcher)
1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
9 Tactical Squad, 220 pts (Meltagun; Missile Launcher)
1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
9 Tactical Squad, 220 pts (Meltagun; Missile Launcher)
1 Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Combi-Meltagun x1)
1 Rhino (Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Storm Bolter)
1 Land Speeder, 90 pts (Heavy Bolter x1; Typhoon Missile Launcher x1)
1 Land Speeder, 90 pts (Heavy Bolter x1; Typhoon Missile Launcher x1)
1 Predator, 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))
1 Predator, 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))
1 Predator, 85 pts (Heavy Bolter (each side))
Total Roster Cost: 1850
I don't know if I like the Sternguard squad or not. If I got rid of it I would add a MM land speeder and another rifleman dread. I would also change the Librarian's powers to null zone and gate of infinity.
I won't be able to finish another dreadnought tonight though, so I think this will be my list.
Let me know what you think.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Hulka's Bonus Scenario
While the Eldar were scouring the town trying to find info about the underground caverns, Hulka decided to take a small crack team from his own crew to a nearby factory. They would infiltrate the factory and attempt to sneak out of it with some goodies.
This scenario is very unique in that I needed to figure out a way into the factory and then once inside it had to search crates that contained random wargear and weapons. My crew were assumed to be wearing workers clothes so the regular workers in the factory would not think twice about my guys wandering around.
If a worker were to spot one of my crew opening a crate they would alert the authorities. The Enforcers would then exit an office and come to attack my crew. The workers have a daily routine where they enter the factory by two doors and then go to various stations. Once at these stations every turn a die was rolled for each worker to see what they would do. They would either keep working where they were, or turn around or go to a different station nearby.
Every hour of the day consisted of four game turns. I had an open-ended goal of getting in somehow, finding as much stuff as I could or dared too and then getting out somehow. I could very easily get in get out and be done, but I had other plans.
Check out this blog post for more info on this scenario:
Bonus Scenario
Here is a picture of the factory. Some imagination is necessary as the outer walls were all immpassable and there were no windows to climb in or out of. The only way in was the two doors the workers entered by or the garage doors that the trucks would later use to get in.
As the work day begins the workers line up outside the doors ready for another day:
Sargent Hulka takes Fyord Fairlane, Alisa T'Kar, assassin Tor Alcorn and Archy Bunter with him on this stealth mission. He decides the best way to get into the factory is by casually walking in dressed as a worker with all the other workers:
As the workers move to their positions Archy and Hulka start their search opening crates as the workers have their backs turned: (We put tufts of cotton on piles of crates that I had already searched.)
As most of my crew deicdes to walk around avoiding the workers' glances, my assassin Tor Alcorn decides to use his grapple and haul himself up onto the top of some machinery and go into hiding, waiting for the moment where he will be most needed:
As my search continues, elsewhere in the factory workers continue about their normal tasks and the Enforcers haul up in a corner office just waiting to be alerted.
Alisa has been searching for some time now and my crew has found a number of cool items. My crew had found quite a bit of useful kit by now: a grav chute, biobooster, lascarbine(Mars pattern), a respirator, and a photovisor. Alisa then decides to walk right up to one of the last pile of crates not yet to be searched and wait for the worker to turn his back.
Now almost all of the crates had been searched and I decided I'd search this one last crate with Fyord. And he couldn't believe his eyes when the crate was opened. A Plasma Cannon was inside! At this point I decided my crew had found enough stuff and all that was left to be done was to get out.
At this point in the scenario the trucks began arriving which would be loaded up with stuff by the workers and then drive out. As the first truck pulled in, Archy Bunter moved close to it and I had hatched a plan! A very A-Team plan if I do say so myself.
I move Archy to the side door of the truck and declare that he is pulling the driver out and then shooting him. With delight the Arbitrator, my friend, agrees that this would be pretty cool and also alert the enforcers. So Archy pulls the trigger and also hops into the drivers seat.
The workers are now obviously a bit scared for their lives and the Enforcers burst out of their office ready to crack some heads.
A this point, knowing the gig is up, Alisa searches the crate right in front of the stunned worker and not finding much of value decides to move over to one of the doors, which is locked. She luckily has a krak grenade and plants it on the door, a big explosion later and the dorr is blasted off its hinges, giving my crew an escape route. Archy however, decides one escape route just isn't good enough and kicks the big truck into gear. He floors it and rams headlong into the garage door hoping to smash through it. Unfortunately the door holds.
Tor Alcorn then makes his move and jumps down from his hiding spot. One of my crew then lets fly with a lasgun and kills an enforcer. With all of this commotion a door opens up inside the factory and out comes an absolute monster with cables all around and bristling with guns. Tor then decides to throw his Hallucinagen gas grenade to obscure its view and it hits two Enforcers and a worker send one of them running in a different direction thinking he has spiders crawling all over him!
Hulka, seeing Archy fail in his attempt to smash through the door climbs on board the truck and tries to smash through the door again. And again the garage door holds!
At this point the Enforcers have rounded the corner and are quite close to my crew, they open fire and my crew tries to get the heck out.
As the rest of the crew try and get out of the blown off door, Hulka gets cut off and has to try to escape gimpy leg and heavy carapace armour an all.
The Enforcers have rounded the corner and begin shooting in earnest at my crew. The first to get knocked down is Alisa:
Fyord then gets hit and also goes down.
Finally everyone but Hulka eascapes out of the door. Hulka is all alone in the Factory at this point and has to run from one pile of crates to another taking cover and trying to avoid not only the Enforcers but the big monstrosity shooting at him with a heavy bolter.
With all of the Enforcers focusing on Hulka he somehow manages to evade capture and escapes through the door to safety!
It was such a nerve-wracking game when Hulka got cut off. I had to decide what to do, try and bring back my crew and try to rescue him or see if he could gut it out on his own. He somehow managed to not get hit TWICE! by a heavy bolter. And the enforcers just couldn't bring him down. He is obviously made of some tuff stuff.
The Monster was a really cool surprise that I didn't know about before the battle. I didn't get a very good picture of it so I will have to wait and see if my friend got a better pic of it before I can put it up.
These kind of game are really great because they are open-ended and have no set end turn. It also showed that this game can be played in a different style than what is normally expected from a 40k game or even a Necromunda game. Having a story and coming up with rules on the fly like driving the truck and ramming the door is great fun. I want to try and play more scenarios like this where there is a definite story and some loose rules to go with it. As the game progresses we can modify and make up new rules when we think of something that would be cool to happen during the game.
After the battle was over I decided to sell off the plasma cannon because we both felt it was a bit over powering to have in my crew. Also it was worth quite a bit of coin so that was nice. The other items I got were pretty awesome and will be put to good use by my crew.
Thanks for reading, see you next time.
This scenario is very unique in that I needed to figure out a way into the factory and then once inside it had to search crates that contained random wargear and weapons. My crew were assumed to be wearing workers clothes so the regular workers in the factory would not think twice about my guys wandering around.
If a worker were to spot one of my crew opening a crate they would alert the authorities. The Enforcers would then exit an office and come to attack my crew. The workers have a daily routine where they enter the factory by two doors and then go to various stations. Once at these stations every turn a die was rolled for each worker to see what they would do. They would either keep working where they were, or turn around or go to a different station nearby.
Every hour of the day consisted of four game turns. I had an open-ended goal of getting in somehow, finding as much stuff as I could or dared too and then getting out somehow. I could very easily get in get out and be done, but I had other plans.
Check out this blog post for more info on this scenario:
Bonus Scenario
Here is a picture of the factory. Some imagination is necessary as the outer walls were all immpassable and there were no windows to climb in or out of. The only way in was the two doors the workers entered by or the garage doors that the trucks would later use to get in.
As the work day begins the workers line up outside the doors ready for another day:
Sargent Hulka takes Fyord Fairlane, Alisa T'Kar, assassin Tor Alcorn and Archy Bunter with him on this stealth mission. He decides the best way to get into the factory is by casually walking in dressed as a worker with all the other workers:
As the workers move to their positions Archy and Hulka start their search opening crates as the workers have their backs turned: (We put tufts of cotton on piles of crates that I had already searched.)
As most of my crew deicdes to walk around avoiding the workers' glances, my assassin Tor Alcorn decides to use his grapple and haul himself up onto the top of some machinery and go into hiding, waiting for the moment where he will be most needed:
As my search continues, elsewhere in the factory workers continue about their normal tasks and the Enforcers haul up in a corner office just waiting to be alerted.
Alisa has been searching for some time now and my crew has found a number of cool items. My crew had found quite a bit of useful kit by now: a grav chute, biobooster, lascarbine(Mars pattern), a respirator, and a photovisor. Alisa then decides to walk right up to one of the last pile of crates not yet to be searched and wait for the worker to turn his back.
Now almost all of the crates had been searched and I decided I'd search this one last crate with Fyord. And he couldn't believe his eyes when the crate was opened. A Plasma Cannon was inside! At this point I decided my crew had found enough stuff and all that was left to be done was to get out.
At this point in the scenario the trucks began arriving which would be loaded up with stuff by the workers and then drive out. As the first truck pulled in, Archy Bunter moved close to it and I had hatched a plan! A very A-Team plan if I do say so myself.
I move Archy to the side door of the truck and declare that he is pulling the driver out and then shooting him. With delight the Arbitrator, my friend, agrees that this would be pretty cool and also alert the enforcers. So Archy pulls the trigger and also hops into the drivers seat.
The workers are now obviously a bit scared for their lives and the Enforcers burst out of their office ready to crack some heads.
A this point, knowing the gig is up, Alisa searches the crate right in front of the stunned worker and not finding much of value decides to move over to one of the doors, which is locked. She luckily has a krak grenade and plants it on the door, a big explosion later and the dorr is blasted off its hinges, giving my crew an escape route. Archy however, decides one escape route just isn't good enough and kicks the big truck into gear. He floors it and rams headlong into the garage door hoping to smash through it. Unfortunately the door holds.
Tor Alcorn then makes his move and jumps down from his hiding spot. One of my crew then lets fly with a lasgun and kills an enforcer. With all of this commotion a door opens up inside the factory and out comes an absolute monster with cables all around and bristling with guns. Tor then decides to throw his Hallucinagen gas grenade to obscure its view and it hits two Enforcers and a worker send one of them running in a different direction thinking he has spiders crawling all over him!
Hulka, seeing Archy fail in his attempt to smash through the door climbs on board the truck and tries to smash through the door again. And again the garage door holds!
At this point the Enforcers have rounded the corner and are quite close to my crew, they open fire and my crew tries to get the heck out.
As the rest of the crew try and get out of the blown off door, Hulka gets cut off and has to try to escape gimpy leg and heavy carapace armour an all.
The Enforcers have rounded the corner and begin shooting in earnest at my crew. The first to get knocked down is Alisa:
Fyord then gets hit and also goes down.
Finally everyone but Hulka eascapes out of the door. Hulka is all alone in the Factory at this point and has to run from one pile of crates to another taking cover and trying to avoid not only the Enforcers but the big monstrosity shooting at him with a heavy bolter.
With all of the Enforcers focusing on Hulka he somehow manages to evade capture and escapes through the door to safety!
It was such a nerve-wracking game when Hulka got cut off. I had to decide what to do, try and bring back my crew and try to rescue him or see if he could gut it out on his own. He somehow managed to not get hit TWICE! by a heavy bolter. And the enforcers just couldn't bring him down. He is obviously made of some tuff stuff.
The Monster was a really cool surprise that I didn't know about before the battle. I didn't get a very good picture of it so I will have to wait and see if my friend got a better pic of it before I can put it up.
These kind of game are really great because they are open-ended and have no set end turn. It also showed that this game can be played in a different style than what is normally expected from a 40k game or even a Necromunda game. Having a story and coming up with rules on the fly like driving the truck and ramming the door is great fun. I want to try and play more scenarios like this where there is a definite story and some loose rules to go with it. As the game progresses we can modify and make up new rules when we think of something that would be cool to happen during the game.
After the battle was over I decided to sell off the plasma cannon because we both felt it was a bit over powering to have in my crew. Also it was worth quite a bit of coin so that was nice. The other items I got were pretty awesome and will be put to good use by my crew.
Thanks for reading, see you next time.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
The Zorn Artefact Part1: The Hunt for the Caverns Batrep
So The first game we played I acted as the Game Master and controlled the Enforcers of Vrall. Yog'Sothoth and crew were tasked with the mission of interrogating townsfolk and searching buildings to find the entrance to underground caverns that supposedly exist below the town. They needed to accomplish this goal to get their leader, Miguel Quasar, back from Sargent Hulka who has been holding him captive.
They had to accomplish this whether they alerted the authorities to their presence or not. Although it would be easier to find the entrance without alerting the authorities.
Here is the battlefield:
The Enforcers of Vrall deploy in the center:
The Eldar sneak up to a building ready to interrogate a townsfolk:
The Eldar Sharpshooter Daemon prepares to get into a better position to survey the battlefield:
Yog'Sothoth prepares to give an Imperial Citizen the shakedown:
Daemon the Sharpshooter climbs up to get a better position and starts knocking off Enforcers. I think he shot 3 or 4 during the game. The Enforcers meanwhile spread out to try and catch the Eldar in the act:
Oblio and Hiro close in on another Citizen but an Enforcer tries to spoil their plans:
The Enforcers spot the Eldar and they send reinforcements in the form of a large Toad Armoured vehicle loaded with Enforcers of Vrall and Oblio takes aim:
The Enforcers disembark from their Toad ready to lay down the law on Oblio:
With time running out and the Enforcers now fully aware of the Eldar, Yog steps up and lays down his law with his flamer:
Hiro makes a break for it to try and get to a building further back. The Enforcers spot him and with a well-placed lasgun shot bring him down.
Yog'Sothoth powers up his powerfist and charges into an Enforcer hoping to knock him on his butt:
Yo'Sothoth is brought down by Enforcers, Hiro is knocked out of the game and unfortunately Oblio gets captured by Enforcers and taken off to the Precinct House. While Daemon the sharpshooter continues to snipe off Enforcers he eventually realizes that he is the only one left and decides to sneak off into the shadows and regroup:
With Oblio captured the Eldar gang is reduced to just three members. They failed in their mission to find either the entrance to the caverns or info leading to the entrance.
When news of their misfortune reaches Sargent Hulka he is not pleased. He decides to take all of Miguel's weapons and wargear and sell him off into slavery.
The next battle report is up next.
They had to accomplish this whether they alerted the authorities to their presence or not. Although it would be easier to find the entrance without alerting the authorities.
Here is the battlefield:
The Enforcers of Vrall deploy in the center:
The Eldar sneak up to a building ready to interrogate a townsfolk:
The Eldar Sharpshooter Daemon prepares to get into a better position to survey the battlefield:
Yog'Sothoth prepares to give an Imperial Citizen the shakedown:
Daemon the Sharpshooter climbs up to get a better position and starts knocking off Enforcers. I think he shot 3 or 4 during the game. The Enforcers meanwhile spread out to try and catch the Eldar in the act:
Oblio and Hiro close in on another Citizen but an Enforcer tries to spoil their plans:
The Enforcers spot the Eldar and they send reinforcements in the form of a large Toad Armoured vehicle loaded with Enforcers of Vrall and Oblio takes aim:
The Enforcers disembark from their Toad ready to lay down the law on Oblio:
With time running out and the Enforcers now fully aware of the Eldar, Yog steps up and lays down his law with his flamer:
Hiro makes a break for it to try and get to a building further back. The Enforcers spot him and with a well-placed lasgun shot bring him down.
Yog'Sothoth powers up his powerfist and charges into an Enforcer hoping to knock him on his butt:
Yo'Sothoth is brought down by Enforcers, Hiro is knocked out of the game and unfortunately Oblio gets captured by Enforcers and taken off to the Precinct House. While Daemon the sharpshooter continues to snipe off Enforcers he eventually realizes that he is the only one left and decides to sneak off into the shadows and regroup:
With Oblio captured the Eldar gang is reduced to just three members. They failed in their mission to find either the entrance to the caverns or info leading to the entrance.
When news of their misfortune reaches Sargent Hulka he is not pleased. He decides to take all of Miguel's weapons and wargear and sell him off into slavery.
The next battle report is up next.
Bonus Scenario for Sargent Hulka and Crew
So last weekend I played two scenarios with my friend the first one was the one I posted in my previous blog post and the second one was one he came up with. The details, which are his work, is detailed below:
"The Captain tapped his finger on the switch simply marked "OPENCOM" repeatedly, even though he knew it wouldn't work. Frustration was beginning to set in. Three full days following the communications blackout after the SPECUP1 Satellite failure, things around the industrial zones were beginning to come back together. Automation would always hiccup now and then, an autolift failing to arrive at the correct floor, or an autocar driving headlong into a crowd of citizens waiting in line for nutri-rations.
Sometimes those queues were so long, citizens at the back barely noticed the car, and would actually stay in line thinking that actual progress in distribution was being made.
The captain's nameplate, pinned to his front left lapel of his navy-blue wool jacket read in loud, black capital letters: RANCO. Captain Jarr Ranco was a native born; one who was born and raised, and incidentally never left, the surface of Cassius. His entire life had been one of relative ease, relative wealth, and relative order.
To anyone else in this galaxy, his life was hard, poor, and chaotic.
Captain Ranco finally gave up on the OPENCOM switch on his main screen panel, stood up from his station and walked across his small office to a grey-green steel door at the opposite end. His boots were black polished leather, and made a squeaky-squishing noise as he walked across the white tile floor. The tile was most certainly synthetic, a type of rubber made in the South Industrial Districts, what most Enforcers of Vrall called the "SID," also joking that the initialism stood for "Sudden Immediate Death."
Ranco reflected briefly upon this as he twirled the combination dial once and unlatched the heavily reinforced steel door, revealing the only portal leading out of his station. Outside, a labyrinth of cubicles spread out before him below a small girded walkway. Jarr stepped out onto the platform, and called out in a demand:
"Mister Lemon! Mister Lemon!"
He scanned the crowd. A small man, clad in a navy blue jumpsuit and clutching a folder of datafile papers and a small vid-screen was weaving his way through the cubicle maze, making his way to his office. Ranco returned back inside. The meeting began a full three minutes later.
"Mister Lemon, I do apologize for taking you away from your station, I will be sure to fill out a Ninety-Five-Stroke-Seven for your absence. You will deliver this to your Secretary-At-Arm-Length and Minister-of-SID-Portfolio, yes?"
Ranco removed a rubber stamp from his desk drawer, and used it no less than nine times on five different datafiles.
Mister Lemon looked shaken. "Sir, since the failure of the Autocoms in the SID, it is highly unlikely that the transportation grid is working fully. Even if I could call one of the services, that is."
Ranco looked displeased, an expression he'd worked upon for years, ever since he was twelve and discovered it when examining his complexion in a mirror at the Northside Youth Training Facility. "Mister Lemon, I put it to you that you should most likely be able to walk there..."
Ranco said many more words while berating Mister Lemon, but Mister Lemon had stopped fully listening. His eyes were scanning the address of the bastion he would have to walk to, and his mind reeled at the prospect at walking the streets of the SID alone. When the meeting was over, Captain Ranco slammed the steel door shut behind Mister Lemon. It took Mister Lemon five minutes to return to his seat. Two hours later Lemon's shift entered the Task Phase, where he filled out another 95-7 form, delivered it to the floor manager and stepped out into the street.
Exactly Thirty-Seven minutes later Lemon found himself disembarking from a public transportation pod, and, still clutching his vidscreen and folder of datafiles, began a slow winding walk through the winding streets to the Ministorium of the SID. Mister Lemon made it about three blocks. His body would be found by a Vrall patrol two-and-a-half hours later. His vidscreen would be missing, but the datafile papers were strewn all around the area, in a diameter twice the radius of the pool of blood surrounding the late Mister Lemon.
Four blocks away, Fjord Fairlane was spending the sunny afternoon trying to get his newly-acquired All-Terrain Vehicle "The Toad," back on four (if not six by tomorrow) wheels again. He had stopped to eat a ham and vegimite sandwich when a whirl of 12" x 18" legal documents (normally called datafiles on this planet) floated on a breeze around the corner and scattered across the oily driveway in front of him. Fjord picked one of them up casually, and sat down on a half-drum. He scowled as he read, trying to decipher what it read. Most of it seemed like gibberish, but there was one section that seemed a little bit more clear:
++372ninrApls++ Start The factory is located at 12099978a 445b SID primary. While the current situation disallows our communication with the factory, it is imp**67++galphaninrBmins++ we make our investigation on the floor production. It is the responsibility ++codvioANSI97.3visio++ of the Ministry and its Portfolio that the code is followed to absolute strictest standards. ++LingophonestartninrApls++ Informants have told us that there are stockpiles of weapons and equipment that have not been delivered due to the Autotruck (v769.9) malfunctions. ++71077345++ JVR has sent courier. ABS will be ready for field testing once Autotruck comms are restored. Please send Vrall Enforcement team to safeguard ABS until then. ++71077345ninrBminsEND+++
Fjord raised one eyebrow upon reading this and paused chewing. Folding it in half, he walked into the small garage and through the back door to where Sgt. Hulka and the rest of the gang were deciding what to do next."
The scenario:
"Sgt Hulka's team, if they choose to do so, can infiltrate the Factory 71077345 and plunder the overstock.
The scenario will begin with the Arbitrator setting up the Factory. Somewhere in the middle of the factory will be the man known simply as "JVR." He's the factory boss. There will be lots of equipment and crates and stuff around, and the Factory will take up the majority of the 6' x 4' board.
There are three distinct entrance times that the team can take advantage of, at other times the doors to the factory will be locked. Getting in will be much more difficult when the doors are locked.
0100: Workers arrive in two entrances to the factory. If the team can find a way to get into the factory, they'll find themselves surrounded by workers "punching in" and going straight to work.
0600: While the Autotrucks used to take away goods are disabled, there are still delivery trucks bringing raw materials to the factory. There will be a large garage door that will open and allow these trucks to enter and leave.
0800: Worker break. Most workers exit the building and hang around outside the doors for an hour while they smoke.
0900: Worker break ends. Workers enter the factory and get back to work.
1100: Shift change. Doors open for new shift.
1600: Autotruck delivery.
1800: Worker break. Doors open.
1900: Break ends. Doors close.
2100: Factory closes and all workers leave factory. Lights are shut off and nightwatchmen deploy and security systems are enabled.
2400: Factory re-opens. Lights turn back on.
How this will work: The above describes an average day in the factory. Through surveillance, the team can observe one day of movement, which will be performed by the Arbitrator. Then the Player will pitch his strategy for getting into the factory and getting away with the loot, a "plan" as it were. The Arbitrator and the Player will come up with a division of turns between hour schedules that will describe what happens and when.
For example, if the player decided that he wanted to sneak someone into the factory during a break at 0800, he could begin his first turn at 0700. Then the player and Arbitrator could agree that there would be four turns played between 0700 and 0800. The same "pace of play" could be kept until the player sneaks his figure into a hiding spot where he's sure he won't be seen for hours. Play could "time warp" up to 1100 where a shift change occurs- as long as no player movement is needed.
This is a cooperative effort between Player and Arbitrator to allow the Player to plan a break-in and loot scenario. Player should be encouraged to "think outside the box," coming up with elaborate schemes to get in, get loot, and get out without detection.
It should be noted that the Factory Employees are good citizens who will most likely rat out anyone they don't recognize as a real employee. Detection is probably not a good thing, and if it wasn't evident in the fluff, Vrall Enforcers are probably nearby. They like to hang around factories full of weapons.
Furthermore, the Foreman of the Factory, JVR is a most mysterious character. His location will be kept hidden until the Arbitrator feels is is proper to introduce him. He'd probably be worth lots of ransom money...
Finding loot: Player will be able to expend movement and actions to "search" almost anything. If a player rolls a "6," on a D6, he will find loot. Every time a model searches, add a D6 to his roll (to a maximum of 6). The Player will roll on the charts in the Arbitrator book according to category and find those items.
Arbitrator reserves the right to veto any item that probably wouldn't be there (like terminator or power armor, or eldar force weapons, etc).
If, before searching, the Player rolls a "triple six," he may roll on any chart and override the Arbitrators veto!
Errata:
Each "piece" of terrain may be searched once, excepting obvious things like walls, doorknobs, car tires. They cannot be searched at all. Things that can be searched will herefore be called crates.
Boxes and crates can be searched, but what is inside does not necessarily need to be taken.
If there are multiple models in base contact with a crate, one model may search and deliver an item inside to said adjacent model (the "You Hold the Crate Open" rule).
There are a few ways of alerting the authorities to your location.
1) Search through a crate while in LOS of an unfriendly citizen, Enforcer, or anyone else who is employed by the factory.
2) Shoot any guns inside.
3) Kill someone inside while in LOS of anyone unfriendly, or allow a body of someone killed to be found by anyone.
4) Open an office door (especially that one office full of Enforcers) without disabling the alarm, or making sure there's no one inside.
Billy-Joes-Gun-Shop: Down a dark alley a mere 500 feet from the factory is a minor trader known as Billy-Joe. Billy holds a stake in this operation, and will be willing to help the gang if you wish. He will allow the gang to do the following:
Pre-Game Action: A single member from the gang may pick one item in the armory, and roll to see if it is available. If it is, he may buy or trade items on a 100% value basis to Billy-Joe. If an item or items are traded with Billy-Joe, they must be returned at the end of the mission.
Post-Game Action: Any extra gear hauled away from the Factory will literally be "Factory Fresh," still in its plastic wrapper and smelling like a new car. Billy-Joe will pay full price for these items.
Oh yeah, and the benefits.
For anyone who enters the factory and survives will gain 1xp.
If the leader survives: one bonus xp."
Next posts will be batreps.
"The Captain tapped his finger on the switch simply marked "OPENCOM" repeatedly, even though he knew it wouldn't work. Frustration was beginning to set in. Three full days following the communications blackout after the SPECUP1 Satellite failure, things around the industrial zones were beginning to come back together. Automation would always hiccup now and then, an autolift failing to arrive at the correct floor, or an autocar driving headlong into a crowd of citizens waiting in line for nutri-rations.
Sometimes those queues were so long, citizens at the back barely noticed the car, and would actually stay in line thinking that actual progress in distribution was being made.
The captain's nameplate, pinned to his front left lapel of his navy-blue wool jacket read in loud, black capital letters: RANCO. Captain Jarr Ranco was a native born; one who was born and raised, and incidentally never left, the surface of Cassius. His entire life had been one of relative ease, relative wealth, and relative order.
To anyone else in this galaxy, his life was hard, poor, and chaotic.
Captain Ranco finally gave up on the OPENCOM switch on his main screen panel, stood up from his station and walked across his small office to a grey-green steel door at the opposite end. His boots were black polished leather, and made a squeaky-squishing noise as he walked across the white tile floor. The tile was most certainly synthetic, a type of rubber made in the South Industrial Districts, what most Enforcers of Vrall called the "SID," also joking that the initialism stood for "Sudden Immediate Death."
Ranco reflected briefly upon this as he twirled the combination dial once and unlatched the heavily reinforced steel door, revealing the only portal leading out of his station. Outside, a labyrinth of cubicles spread out before him below a small girded walkway. Jarr stepped out onto the platform, and called out in a demand:
"Mister Lemon! Mister Lemon!"
He scanned the crowd. A small man, clad in a navy blue jumpsuit and clutching a folder of datafile papers and a small vid-screen was weaving his way through the cubicle maze, making his way to his office. Ranco returned back inside. The meeting began a full three minutes later.
"Mister Lemon, I do apologize for taking you away from your station, I will be sure to fill out a Ninety-Five-Stroke-Seven for your absence. You will deliver this to your Secretary-At-Arm-Length and Minister-of-SID-Portfolio, yes?"
Ranco removed a rubber stamp from his desk drawer, and used it no less than nine times on five different datafiles.
Mister Lemon looked shaken. "Sir, since the failure of the Autocoms in the SID, it is highly unlikely that the transportation grid is working fully. Even if I could call one of the services, that is."
Ranco looked displeased, an expression he'd worked upon for years, ever since he was twelve and discovered it when examining his complexion in a mirror at the Northside Youth Training Facility. "Mister Lemon, I put it to you that you should most likely be able to walk there..."
Ranco said many more words while berating Mister Lemon, but Mister Lemon had stopped fully listening. His eyes were scanning the address of the bastion he would have to walk to, and his mind reeled at the prospect at walking the streets of the SID alone. When the meeting was over, Captain Ranco slammed the steel door shut behind Mister Lemon. It took Mister Lemon five minutes to return to his seat. Two hours later Lemon's shift entered the Task Phase, where he filled out another 95-7 form, delivered it to the floor manager and stepped out into the street.
Exactly Thirty-Seven minutes later Lemon found himself disembarking from a public transportation pod, and, still clutching his vidscreen and folder of datafiles, began a slow winding walk through the winding streets to the Ministorium of the SID. Mister Lemon made it about three blocks. His body would be found by a Vrall patrol two-and-a-half hours later. His vidscreen would be missing, but the datafile papers were strewn all around the area, in a diameter twice the radius of the pool of blood surrounding the late Mister Lemon.
Four blocks away, Fjord Fairlane was spending the sunny afternoon trying to get his newly-acquired All-Terrain Vehicle "The Toad," back on four (if not six by tomorrow) wheels again. He had stopped to eat a ham and vegimite sandwich when a whirl of 12" x 18" legal documents (normally called datafiles on this planet) floated on a breeze around the corner and scattered across the oily driveway in front of him. Fjord picked one of them up casually, and sat down on a half-drum. He scowled as he read, trying to decipher what it read. Most of it seemed like gibberish, but there was one section that seemed a little bit more clear:
++372ninrApls++ Start The factory is located at 12099978a 445b SID primary. While the current situation disallows our communication with the factory, it is imp**67++galphaninrBmins++ we make our investigation on the floor production. It is the responsibility ++codvioANSI97.3visio++ of the Ministry and its Portfolio that the code is followed to absolute strictest standards. ++LingophonestartninrApls++ Informants have told us that there are stockpiles of weapons and equipment that have not been delivered due to the Autotruck (v769.9) malfunctions. ++71077345++ JVR has sent courier. ABS will be ready for field testing once Autotruck comms are restored. Please send Vrall Enforcement team to safeguard ABS until then. ++71077345ninrBminsEND+++
Fjord raised one eyebrow upon reading this and paused chewing. Folding it in half, he walked into the small garage and through the back door to where Sgt. Hulka and the rest of the gang were deciding what to do next."
The scenario:
"Sgt Hulka's team, if they choose to do so, can infiltrate the Factory 71077345 and plunder the overstock.
The scenario will begin with the Arbitrator setting up the Factory. Somewhere in the middle of the factory will be the man known simply as "JVR." He's the factory boss. There will be lots of equipment and crates and stuff around, and the Factory will take up the majority of the 6' x 4' board.
There are three distinct entrance times that the team can take advantage of, at other times the doors to the factory will be locked. Getting in will be much more difficult when the doors are locked.
0100: Workers arrive in two entrances to the factory. If the team can find a way to get into the factory, they'll find themselves surrounded by workers "punching in" and going straight to work.
0600: While the Autotrucks used to take away goods are disabled, there are still delivery trucks bringing raw materials to the factory. There will be a large garage door that will open and allow these trucks to enter and leave.
0800: Worker break. Most workers exit the building and hang around outside the doors for an hour while they smoke.
0900: Worker break ends. Workers enter the factory and get back to work.
1100: Shift change. Doors open for new shift.
1600: Autotruck delivery.
1800: Worker break. Doors open.
1900: Break ends. Doors close.
2100: Factory closes and all workers leave factory. Lights are shut off and nightwatchmen deploy and security systems are enabled.
2400: Factory re-opens. Lights turn back on.
How this will work: The above describes an average day in the factory. Through surveillance, the team can observe one day of movement, which will be performed by the Arbitrator. Then the Player will pitch his strategy for getting into the factory and getting away with the loot, a "plan" as it were. The Arbitrator and the Player will come up with a division of turns between hour schedules that will describe what happens and when.
For example, if the player decided that he wanted to sneak someone into the factory during a break at 0800, he could begin his first turn at 0700. Then the player and Arbitrator could agree that there would be four turns played between 0700 and 0800. The same "pace of play" could be kept until the player sneaks his figure into a hiding spot where he's sure he won't be seen for hours. Play could "time warp" up to 1100 where a shift change occurs- as long as no player movement is needed.
This is a cooperative effort between Player and Arbitrator to allow the Player to plan a break-in and loot scenario. Player should be encouraged to "think outside the box," coming up with elaborate schemes to get in, get loot, and get out without detection.
It should be noted that the Factory Employees are good citizens who will most likely rat out anyone they don't recognize as a real employee. Detection is probably not a good thing, and if it wasn't evident in the fluff, Vrall Enforcers are probably nearby. They like to hang around factories full of weapons.
Furthermore, the Foreman of the Factory, JVR is a most mysterious character. His location will be kept hidden until the Arbitrator feels is is proper to introduce him. He'd probably be worth lots of ransom money...
Finding loot: Player will be able to expend movement and actions to "search" almost anything. If a player rolls a "6," on a D6, he will find loot. Every time a model searches, add a D6 to his roll (to a maximum of 6). The Player will roll on the charts in the Arbitrator book according to category and find those items.
Arbitrator reserves the right to veto any item that probably wouldn't be there (like terminator or power armor, or eldar force weapons, etc).
If, before searching, the Player rolls a "triple six," he may roll on any chart and override the Arbitrators veto!
Errata:
Each "piece" of terrain may be searched once, excepting obvious things like walls, doorknobs, car tires. They cannot be searched at all. Things that can be searched will herefore be called crates.
Boxes and crates can be searched, but what is inside does not necessarily need to be taken.
If there are multiple models in base contact with a crate, one model may search and deliver an item inside to said adjacent model (the "You Hold the Crate Open" rule).
There are a few ways of alerting the authorities to your location.
1) Search through a crate while in LOS of an unfriendly citizen, Enforcer, or anyone else who is employed by the factory.
2) Shoot any guns inside.
3) Kill someone inside while in LOS of anyone unfriendly, or allow a body of someone killed to be found by anyone.
4) Open an office door (especially that one office full of Enforcers) without disabling the alarm, or making sure there's no one inside.
Billy-Joes-Gun-Shop: Down a dark alley a mere 500 feet from the factory is a minor trader known as Billy-Joe. Billy holds a stake in this operation, and will be willing to help the gang if you wish. He will allow the gang to do the following:
Pre-Game Action: A single member from the gang may pick one item in the armory, and roll to see if it is available. If it is, he may buy or trade items on a 100% value basis to Billy-Joe. If an item or items are traded with Billy-Joe, they must be returned at the end of the mission.
Post-Game Action: Any extra gear hauled away from the Factory will literally be "Factory Fresh," still in its plastic wrapper and smelling like a new car. Billy-Joe will pay full price for these items.
Oh yeah, and the benefits.
For anyone who enters the factory and survives will gain 1xp.
If the leader survives: one bonus xp."
Next posts will be batreps.
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