Sunday 27 November 2022

The is Not a Test - The Caravan

The Flores Minor Ranger Corp were out in the wastelands again this week, this time seeking to ambush Andrew's mutants as they escorted a caravan through an abandoned settlement. Unfortunately, they weren't the only ones. Mike joined in the campaign bringing a fourth warband into the mix; sadly, also mutants. So now it looks like a thin blue line of the FMRC (vainly) attempting to hold back a wave of mutant warbands from destroying what remains of humanity. 

Following on from the skirmish in the northern woodlands, the FMRC were accompanied by a new K9 - Pup - and the three hill folk adopted by Buckshot - Ogg, Snogg and Frygga.

Andrew's muties were now a veritable horde, especially when seen alongside the trade caravan. They started on the central road through the settlement, the FMRC were waiting in ambush on the right, while Mikes muties were in ambush to their left. 

Having to deploy on the very board edge was a bit disadvantageous to the FMRC given three of them have sniper rifles and another had a minigun - all of which are move or fire weapons. I split them roughly in two groups to pass through the left and right gaps in the fence line on my side of the settlement. However, the true kicker was when Mike decided to make it a night ambush, thereby negating every one of my crew's strengths by reducing shooting range to practically chare range. Mike's muties, it should be mentioned, are super-charged melee fighters.

The left group ducked forward to harass the flank of Andrew's convoy as it advanced. He sent that wretched mutant dog abomination to attack me again and between Heavy blasting away with his mini-gun and a shot from the back by Sarge, we managed to finally take the damn thing out of action for the first time in the campaign. 

Then a horny mutant with a blunderbuss scrambled forward and took out pup, another mutie knocked out Ogg, while Trench (a mutant with a grenade launcher,) scored a hit that took out Heavy, Demo and Snogg!

Meanwhile, Mike's mutants were ripping into the convoy from the other side. Hotshot lined up a shot at Mikes leader, but the huge beast just shrugged it off.

By this point it was clear that while Andrew's warband had the highest rating, Mikes were the bigger threat and I focused what remained of my crew on trying to take his leader down. As Andrew's mutants bottled it, Buckshot and BT29 blazed away at Mike's boss who then turned around and took them both down in melee. Once out in the open, both Doc and Hotshot tried to snipe him once more, but again he barely flinched as the sniper rounds pinged off his bulky body. At that point, the FMRC too bottled, leaving the spoils to Mike's muties.

In the post-game, poor wee Demo and my bot, BT29, could not be revived - two of Andrew's crew also died of wounds received. Both of my hill folk who were taken out of action, Ogg and Snogg, were banged up, while Heavy was mugged as he lay unconscious and woke up wearing nothing but a headache. The FMRC managed to recover a few barter script, but Mike's muties recovered a deactivated depend-o-bot.

The FMRC did not earn enough BS from the mission to replace its losses (poor wee Demo!), but Heavy replaced his equipment - now wielding an LMG rather than a mini-gun), and the entire squad did manage to go to 'Light Up The World', the flagship local torch store, to buy torches for every ranger with a gun. Henceforth, torches will be standard issue for the FMRC. I'm not letting THAT happen again.

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