Hardwired: Cyberpunk Mayhem!

It seems like skirmishy solo games are all the rage lately, and that works for me, since I don't have a lot of victims friends to try new 15mm games on.  I also, for some reason, like the cyberpunk genre for these sorts of things (witness the terrain).

So, eventually I picked up Hardwired, with the hope that it would be a cool solo cyberpunk game experience.  (Unfortunately, the awesome cover didn't actually come as part of the PDF.  I am sad.) 

Anyway, here's how it turned out:

THE THING

The core of the game is the different action dice.  Each agent (your guys) has three actions every turn, and three dice (d6, d8 and d10) to spend on them.  The thing is, you can only use each of them once during your turn, so you'll have to prioritize.  Using the d10 and d8 to get you across the table and into cover will leave you with just the d6 to shoot with when you get there.

The other thing is the swarms of enemies.  Each turn (most games only last 6 turns) enemies spawn from two of four spawn points.  Four grunts on the first turn, then six.  Then four elites, and then six.  And then four bosses, and then six.  That's then the last turn, but at that point, you're probably dead anyway.

SETUP

The Seraph Protocol

Domenic Van Dorn's shuttle had an "accidental" engine failure over the  isolated Guangzhou High-tech Industrial Zone.  It's the perfect place for a rival corp to snatch him up, but we want to capture him first.  Unfortunately, he's got a cortex bomb implanted into his head, and his bosses will trigger it if we leave with it still active.  The mission is to eliminate the bodyguards, disable the cortex bomb, and leave with Van Dorn. (Also, not die.)

For this mission, I've selected Flavio (a "Razor" or melee specialist), Verdun (a "Splicer" or cyber specialist), M (a "Sawbones" or medic/support specialist), and Bloo (a "Ronin" or firearms specialist).  Every Agent can do everything that anybody else can, but each specialization lets the Agent roll two dice and keep the highest for certain tasks.

Downtown New Kowloon

The crashed shuttle

The VIP and his two bodyguards

Agents Flavio (Razor), Verdun (Splicer), M (Sawbones), and Bloo (Ronin)

TURN 1

The Agents always have the initiative.  They get a free 4" move, but any other actions (including further movement) requires a dice test, with the standard target number of 4+.

Flavio goes first and takes his free, 4" move.  He rolls d6 and gets 4, allowing another 4" move.  He rolls d8 for a 6 to move another 4" into cover.  He's got a d10 left, but nothing good to use it on, so he decides to activate his "Squad Link" Combat Augmentation Program (CAP).  A success on his d10 lets him pass that d10 to Bloo for immediate use.  All Agents have access to all CAPs, but each class of character has an affinity for some CAPs over others.

Flavio's new sword and stylish hood give him the confidence to go first.

Bloo uses the passed d10 to move 4".  He then uses his free 4" move to peek around the corner, and shoots with 2d6 (because he's a Ronin, and this is what Ronin are good at) and gets 1 and 4.  He keeps the highest (4) which is a hit on a bodyguard.  The bodyguard dodges with d6, gets a 4, and avoids the shot.

"Dude, I think you have your laser sight dialed up too high."

"Frak!  Good thing they gave me a pair of these guys!"

Bloo still has dice left, so he tries again with 2d8 , getting 3 and 8 and hitting again!  The bodyguard tries to defend again, but fails.  He takes a wound, and with only one to spare, he crumples to the polycrete platform.

Bloo uses his last action on 2d10 to shoot the other bodyguard.  An 8 beats the target number of four, and the bodyguard's d6 result of 2 doesn't, so the other bodyguard is felled as well.

Mr. Van Dorn clutches his cyber-burrito in terror.

Splicers and Sawbones get double dice for movement, so they use all of their actions on moving forward.  M stumbles a little (1 and 2 on 2d8), but makes it to cover.  Verdun, however, is feeling excitable, and eschews cover to makes a direct line for the VIP.

Verdun casually approaches.

"Sir, have you heard the good news about cyber-Jesus?"

Hostile Security forces (H-SEC), alerted by the crash, have finally made their way to the area to assess the situation and remove any threats (like the Agents!)  Two d4s are rolled to generate spawn-points, and 2 d6-class patrol droids appear at each of points 2 and 4.  The droids get one action each, which they (try) to use to move into position.

Got pretty lucky with this building in the way.

And these guys are on the far end of the table.

TURN 2

Verdun moves up to the VIP and hacks his cortex bomb (so his head won't 'splode when we take him with us).  The scenario didn't bother to set a difficulty level for hacking the bomb, so I kind of had to make a judgement call.  I figured this was more important than an office door, but less important than a corporate server room, so I went with a Level 2 Firewall.  Luckily, Verdun rolls a d6 (6) which, even with the -2 penalty, is a success!  Then...

C:/> FORMAT C:

Well, heck.  Nobody bothered to explain how getting this guy out of here works.  I'm kind of having to make this up as I go.  Taking my cue from video games, I figure that once I've got him hacked, he'll just follow me in his slow, NPC-ish way.  So, a standard 4", plus a generous d6 die to test for extra movement. (He fails.)

Stupid NPC keeps clipping and getting stuck in the geometry.

Somebody message the devs.

Everybody else, lacking nearby targets, just runs cyber-balls out for the extraction point.

(It's also not clear if H-SEC will shoot the VIP.  That would certainly ruin my mission, and the mission objective does describe keeping the VIP safe, but it doesn't feel quite right.  Once again making up rules, I decide that H-SEC will fire at whoever is closest.  So if I can keep my guys between them and the VIP, he won't be a target.  We'll see.)

Initiate Meat Shield Protocol!

At the end of the turn...

The HSEC droids advance (with their free 4" move) and fire.  Luckily, the good rolls were at Agents behind cover and obstructions, and the bad rolls were against M, standing out in the open like a goon.

Pew! Pew! Spak! Zing!

"Hey, shooty guys!  Over here!"

Six more H-SEC droids pour in from spawn points 1 and 2.

These guys are pretty far from us, which is nice.

These guys are RIGHT in our way.

That red dot is the extraction point, you see.

TURN 3

Verdun runs forward to the corner so the VIP can follow him, shoots and downs another droid, and then chucks a grenade... at his own feet!

And yet, despite the -2 to his save for eating a frag grenade, he rolls a 6 and survives unscathed!  Who says keyboard jockeys aren't tough?

KABOOM!

Smoke clears.  Walks out like Luke Skywalker.  Shrug.

With his last action (and having learned from experience to let go of the grenade) he sends another grenade in a graceful arc that obliterates two more droids!

Verdun's many hours in Cyber-Call of Duty pay off!

The VIP dutifully follows, although he's beginning to wonder if he should keep back a little bit.  You know, because grenades.

"Watch it, omae!  You almost made me cyber-drop my cyber-burrito!"
"...Cyber."

Agent M wastes two dice flailing at the enemy with his pistol before giving up and running up behind the VIP.  Flavio backhand blasts a droid in passing, like it's nothing, and then takes up an Overwatch position on the opposite wall.  This is a Support CAP, so he doesn't get double dice like M would.  Flavio rolls d8 and gets 7, for a success, and will now be able to interrupt the enemy to fire his weapon using the same d8.

Is it just me, or does that geisha look pretty damn smug?

Whatever.  Like she could do better.

Bloo tries to keep up, but rolls very poorly, leaving himself wide open for some high-caliber love letters from H-SEC.

"Ouch!  Charlie horse! Ooh! Ooh!"

And then it happens!  Bloo catches a bullet and takes the first Agent wound of the game.  It took like, five droids shooting at him, though.  Now, instead of three actions at d6, d8, and d10, he only has two actions at d6 and d8!

I got nothin'.

It looks like the corporation is getting serious!  They're now sending in H-SEC troopers!  Two show up at spawn-points 1 and 2.  Just my luck! (Although, I suppose spawn-point 3 would have been worse.)  Unlike the droids, these guys get not one, but two d8 actions.  Both as d8!  This includes (I'm assuming) armor rolls.  Yikes!  With all of those d8s, they actually manage to come out shooting!  Flavio, waiting in Overwatch, gets off a shot first, but it misses.  On the bright side, they also fail to injure anybody (but just barely).

The good news is, you won't be tonight's goulash.

The bad news is, they're sending in the professionals.

*KSSHT!* Engaging hostile targets *KSSHT!*

TURN 4

Verdun run for the exit, leading the VIP to safety.  Unfortunately, the VIP is juuuust out of reach of the extraction point, and will need to succeed at a d6 roll or be left standing in the open.
*clatter* A 6!  He beats feet and escapes!

"Come on, you load!"

Technically, that's mission success, but I want to see what happens to the rest of the gang.  There's no campaign rules, so it doesn't really matter, but I'm still curious.  Story and all that.

Bloo moves up to the edge of the building, which takes all of his actions.  M moves out in front of him, planning to slap a heal on him and then run away, but no, that's not how things play out.  He fails the heal.  He can only try once per turn, so with a sheepish shrug, he rolls to move away... and fails on 2d6.  And again on 2d10.  I rolled sooooo many ones.  I guess he's going to be standing there for a while.

Flavio should just run for the exit, but he's a team player, and he charges the guy in cover with his mono-filament blade, and hacks him down.

Plus, cool new sword!  Can't leave the table without at least TRYING it.

Despite standing out in the open, he actually manages to survive the attacks at his back, only suffering two (out of three) wounds... but then all six of the reinforcements show up at spawn-point 2, right behind him!  I guess Flavio does a Batman and hunkers down inside his trench coat, because despite getting shot at 12 times, and hit for more than half of those, he makes his saves and comes out the other side of it!

But, man, the bruising!  So much for going to the pool party.  Sigh. :(

TURN 5

Something, something, the better part of valor.

Everyone is within 4" of the exit, so they do, and just in time because that's when the guys in 3d10 power armor start showing up!

Initiating Sir Robin protocol. (Bravely.)

THE CYBER-END

And that's that. Pretty quick, overall.  It was fun and challenging, and knowing that the enemies were going to keep coming and getting worse provided a nice bit of tension.  The different die types allowed for some minor resource management, too.

On the other hand, there didn't seem to be much in the way of customization options.  With three inventory slots for each character, almost everybody got smart ammo, a monofilament blade, and some kind of grenades.  A few more options would have been nice, I think.  But this was just my first mission and I wasn't able to really gauge what I needed most.  Perhaps a drone and some cyber-warfare programs would have taken up more inventory space if I had felt the need for them.

The game leaves a fair amount of the mission details to the player, but it does say that it's a "lite" game, focusing on the framework and allowing you to fill in the details.  Who's going to complain?  It's a solo game, after all.

So, for the price, I'd say this was certainly worth it, and it gives me ideas for how to handle solo play in other games, I think.

EDIT!
Oops!  Forgot the link to the game!

Hardwired: Cyberpunk Espionage and Mayhem at WargameVault.com

-Jason "Cyber-Ludanto" Smith