Game w/ playtest rules

locarno24

Cosmic Mongoose
Having covered themselves with glory by losing a battle against three dozen badly armed juves, the Klegg forces decided to up the stakes by attacking two senior judges on patrol. Now this, as any sane person can tell you, is almost the definition of A Bad Idea.

The forces of Law and Order consisted of two senior judges (the well-known pairing* of Judge Budge and Judge Smudge), with Heroic Rush, Brave, Luck of Grud (x3), Tough (x3), Crack Shot, Situational Awareness, Duck and Weave, Nerves of Steel and Stealthy.

The forces of Cowardly Ineptitude consisted of three Kleggs and a Sewer-Gator (standing in for a big Klegg-Hound).

The Kleggs ambushed the judges as they moved through a warehouse district on foot, winning the first turn.

Sadly, Stealthy meant that they got no shots off, and had to settle for advancing into range for next turn. The Sewer-Gator sidled off round the flank, hoping to sneak into charge range.

The Judges were having none of this, and swiftly moved to deliver some police brutality. Both Budge & Smudge used Heroic Rush to move up behind some cover and then unloaded two bursts of Standard Execution rounds each. Their accuracy was remarkable - as it was throughout the game, with over 90% of their Lawgiver's shots on target, thanks to a few judicious uses of Luck of Grud.

Budge winged a Klegg with one good hit, but the other bullets either bounced of the crocodillian's armour or simply didn't do enough damage to matter.

The second burst didn't do anything, but as the Klegg dived out of Budge's line of fire, however, it walked directly into a prolonged burst from Judge Smudge. Three hits, three failed armour rolls, one Klegg down. A second burst from Judge Smudge failed to hurt the central Klegg, despite Smudge's Crack Shot.

More disconcertingly, both judges then used Situational Awareness to go onto Alert Status. Between that and Heroic Rush, I could see them getting four actions in a single turn. Not a healthy combination for someone with Shoot +2 and a MkII Lawgiver...

Well...fortune favours the bold, and the heavily armed. More normally the heavily armed, if I'm honest. Nevertheless, the Klegg-hound scampered forwards, getting very close to charge range. So Judge Budge shot it. One Standard Execution round pierced it's hide, leaving it badly wounded but still coming**.

Following this, one of the Kleggs opened up at Judge Smudge (unable to see Judge Budge due to an intervening stack of crates) with his heavy spit gun. Between Duck and Weave, Hard Cover, Agility +1, and a use of Luck of Grud, Judge Smudge evaded every one of the bullets. Frustrated beyond belief, the Klegg threw his spit gun to the ground and started jumping up and down on it with rage. His tantrum was cut short when Judge Smudge shot him repeatedly in the head with Standard Execution rounds.

At least both judges had used up their reactions, the last Klegg sighted on Judge Smudge with his heavy spit gun. Again that blasted lawman dodged every shot, and this time he didn't even use up a reroll doing so! A second burst had more effect, landing a couple of hits, one of which got through the standard issue armour, and knocking off two of the senior judge's five hits.

The judge's second turn was pretty perfunctory. Judge Budge, who was clearly done messing about, shot the Sewer-Gator with a High-Ex round, splattering deep-fried alligator across the gantry. Judge Smudge sighted up on the last Klegg and machine-gunned the alien to the floor.

The two judges dusted themselves off and continued their patrol.
"Control? Finished patrol of the e-z-store district. Nothing to report..."



Damn, that was one-sided. Granted, the judges managed to make better use of cover than the Kleggs, but getting wiped out in two turns in exchange for a flesh wound is just embarrasing. That said, between heroic rush and situational awareness, the judges got to dive into good cover and then still got three shooting actions in the first game turn. With Shoot +2, Crack Shot and the Standard Execution Round's base AP1, the Judges were essentially ignoring hard cover even when the Kleggs managed to find some, and my opponent made very good use of Luck of Grud rerolls.

I think that the judges might have had more trouble against a larger number of perps, rather than a handful of big targets they can concentrate their fire on, but against the Kleggs they did kicked buttock and took names.

The game was even faster..... half an hour, if that, I think.


* Well. Well-known if you've heard of them before.
** If I'm reading it right, because the shooting attack caused two hits from one of its three dice, even if some dice hit but did nothing, the Sewer-Gator didn't need to roll for suppression. And because it had more than one hit left, it didn't need to make a Will To Fight check, either.
 
It was good fun. The judges are a very different proposition to 'generic gang no.3' - I can see taking them down requiring a lot of effort.

Which is, I suppose, why the scenario Scarper, It's the Law! is so named. Slightly odd that you're not actually allowed to scarper, and have to fight it out!
 
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