Renegade Scout - Crash Landing

Great Mountain Mercs vs. Stinging Willow Precursors

The Mans

So, the first thing I do is stat up the armies for each side.  Based on the figures that I own, I go with "Mercs" (mercenaries) versus "Precursors" (an "elder" race, like space-elves or something).  I like "unit cards", so I use these, although maybe there's an argument to be made for a simple "roster" layout.  Still, these are kind of pretty.

The Mercs command squad.  Six dudes with rifles, a SAW, and a commander.

A personality.  ahz'Glandi the Thrice-Blessed.  Basically a space-elf witch.

Now, let's see who will be fighting tonight!

A Mullo medium blaster-tank, a basic rifle squad, a support squad with rockets,

and power-armor dudes with assorted heavy weapons.

The command squad, another power-armor squad, and a laser-armed Jackal.
I mean that it's armed with lasers, not that it has lasers for arms.
Like, yeah, they're shoulder-mounted, but their still not "arms".
The arms are tiny, and come out of the face.  See?

A Duxis power-suit with a big honking energy sword, and a support squad

with rockets and grenades and such.

An assault squad with power-axes, ahm'Icantremember the Stoic (commander),

a regular rifle squad, and ahz'Glandi. 

Three hover-speeders.

The Objectives

This is an "Objective" game, not simply a matter of opinion.  Ha!  I kid!  What I mean is that there are Objectives to capture.  That's how you score Victory Points.  The story is that a pod-ship crashed on a backwater planet, and both sides want to know what it's about.  There's some recon to do, and intel to gather, and thus, the Objectives.

The Cargo.  What's in it?  Who knows?  The first side to control the cargo

scores 2 Victory Points, and then the cargo is removed from play.

The Beacon.  This was ejected from the pod, and is now transmitting something.

At the end of every turn, whoever controls the beacon scores one VP.

Recon Point Alpha.  Is there anything else here?  Let's find out! Controlling

this point scores 1 VP, then the point scatters in a random direction.

Recon Point Bravo.  This is another recon point.

Also, I have the attention span of a coked-up squirrel, so this game will only last 4 turns.

Turn 1

The Precursors have a slightly better Intellect, and a much better die roll, and thus start the game with Priority, which means that they go first each phase.

The table is set up like this:

Trying to stay out of line of sight, of course.

Movement Phase

This being a mission about capturing Objectives, there isn't any point in messing around.  Most of the units on both sides give up the opportunity to shoot in order to run double-time instead.  The Precursors move a unit (because they have Priority) and then the Mercs move a unit, and then the Precursors, and so on.

The yellow tokens with the triangle here mean "ran".  Or "runned".
Whatever.  The point is, they moved fast and can't shoot this turn.

Fire Combat Phase

The Precursors still have priority, so they get to select a unit to shoot first.  And then the Mercs, and back and forth like that again.  The thing is, at this point, there aren't a lot of units with line of sight to the enemy.  A few shots are traded, but only the Jackal manages to hurt anything.

There are a handful of special rules for the speeder bikes, but they are in a supplement and I can't be bothered to look them up.  I check later, and while I forgot about their Force-Screens, I also forgot to check to see if I hit the pilot, so I think it evens out.

The Mullo hits here, but doesn't successfully wound the Duxis.

Mostly, this is just a cool angle for a photo.

The Jackal's Heavy Laser doesn't do the trick, but the pilot's Neural-Link

allows him to try again with the Auto Laser.  Sizzle! One of three wounds!

Close Combat Phase

Nothing to see here.

Wyrd Phase

ahz'Glandi the Thrice-Blessed has Wyrd Mastery 3, so she knows three "Wyrds" (i.e. "spells", or "psychic powers").  One, "Etheric Might", is "always on" and just makes her stronger and tougher.  "Mesmerize" gives her a 2/3 chance of paralyzing a target figure.  "Split-Second Sight" lets her warn nearby allies, granting them +1 Armor.  She can cast the latter two every round, but each successful casting causes 1 Strain.  Of course, she loses two Strain at the end of every Wyrd phase, so it really only becomes an issue for higher-level casters, or critical failures.

As an aside, if you can manage to roll box-cars twice, not only do you fail to cast, but the mystical realm overlaps the real world briefly, and everything within 3 inches of the caster (figures, terrain, objectives, the caster, everything) is sucked into the other realm, never to be seen again.  Ouch.  But still awesome. :)

"Split-Second Sight" gives everybody here +1 Armor.

That's 1 Strain there, but it is so not a problem.

Rally Phase

No morale failures yet. Carry on.

Turn 2

Priority changes hands. The Mercs get to go first now.

Movement Phase

The Duxis charges this power-armor squad.

Probably not going to end well for the little blue guys.

Rifle Squad Bravo gets in range of Recon Point Bravo!

I'm just hoping that tank doesn't squish somebody.

The Mullo doesn't squish anybody, but it does manage to

get itself stuck (bogged) on a bit of wall.

And here's where everybody is.  Check out that speeder on the far left.

Those guys are fast!

Fire Combat Phase

First kill!  The Heavy Blasters can't fire, because they're "Slow" and these

guys moved, but the Flame Projector and the Penetrator Grenade Launcher

are quite enough, thank you.  (That burning thing used to be a speeder.)

Revenge is sweet!  The speedy speeder behind enemy lines rolls three dice,

 all 1s, which get rerolled, score a 1, which gets rerolled and scores another 1.  Five hits!

Four of the hits wound, and nobody makes their armor save.

Four blue smears in the dirt!

The Auto Laser on the Jackal takes out another speeder.

Rifle Team Alpha (beside the Jackal) hits with a long shot, and drops

the Precursors' rocket launcher.

The Mullo's auto-slugger drops another Precursor.

At the end of every phase, if a squad loses more than one guy (and hasn't tested already),

they make a morale test.  These guys fail by 1, and are thus "pinned".

Close Combat Phase

Close combat can take a moment, as each fight can have multiple attacks.  The trick is to get the first attack, and kill the other guy.  He might have three attack dice, but he only gets to use them one at a time, so if you can kill him first, he gets to use none of them.

This Merc power-armor survives the Duxis' first hit, misses his own attack,

and then is missed by the Duxis' second attack.  Lucky!

Wyrd Phase

ahz'Glandi refreshes her "Split-Second Sight" Wyrd. [Shrug]  Not super exciting, but at least she doesn't get sucked into the darkness between the stars.

Rally Phase

The pinned guys remained pinned. They'll automatically recover at the end of the next Rally Phase. (I think there might be plans to change how that works in a later update, though.)

End of the Turn

The Mercs have more guys within 2 inches of this Objective than the Precursors,

so they score 1 VP and the Objective moves 5 inches NNW.

Turn 3

Turn 3 goes pretty fast. Priority goes back to the Precursors.

Movement Phase

The Mullo gets over that wall, and Rifle Squad Bravo advances.

That's about it.

Fire Combat Phase

That last speeder finishes off those two remaining pinned Mercs, who can't move out of the way.  The power armor squad fighting the Duxis steels its nerves and pours napalm all over the Duxis and their own guy.  The Merc shakes it off, but the Duxis takes one wound.

Close Combat Phase

Why don't I have a photo of this? The Duxis takes out the power armor that it's fighting and advances on the next nearest power-armor.

Wyrd Phase

ahz'Glandi casts "Split-Second Sight". Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo!

Rally Phase

Nada.

End o' Turn

The Precursors score 2 points for collecting the Cargo.   It doesn't seem fair that I don't have an image for that.  I'm probably biased towards humans.  Somebody call HR.

The Mercs score Recon Point Alpha, which moves 8 inches west.

They also score Recon Point Bravo (which jumps behind them) AND the Beacon!

Turn 4

The Mercs have Priority again. They're also in the lead, points-wise. The Precursors had better try something!

Movement Phase

Mostly, everybody tries to advance on the Objectives.  The Jackal runs in to get the Duxis in its sights, and Rifle Squad Bravo spreads out to try to capture both Objectives again.

The view from the satellite.

Fire Combat Phase

These Precursors try to outflank the power armor, but the power armor just

jumps the wall into cover and guns a couple of the Precursors down.

The Precursors don't fail their morale test, though.

Close Combat Phase

The Precursor Assault Squad... assaults, and to great effect.  They kill two Mercs,

and chop down another as he tries to run.  The rest of the Broken unit flee the table.

One of the guys killed is the Commander, so the power armor guys

Break too, and run away from the slaughter.

Rally Phase

The power armor squad fails to rally, but it doesn't matter, because this is the last turn.

End of Turn

The Mercs score a couple more points, and then it's game over!  The Mercs win, 6 to 2!

And that was my little weekend adventure in the world of Renegade Scout.  It's a pretty fun game.  It has a retro aesthetic, but the rules are still clean and unified.  I hope to play against a real, live opponent in the near future. :)

And the link.  I'm too lazy to bother with "affiliate" stuff, so this is just a link.

Renegade Scout: Bleeding Edge Retro-Gaming

Ĝis la revido!

Jason "Ludanto" Smith C;E