This is Not a Test - Saving Private Snogg

For the last game of the year, Jim and I were hosted by Andrew for the seventh game in our This is Not a Test campaign. Having captured my tame hillman, Snogg, at our last engagement, Andrew's mutants had him caged, just challenging me to come and free him. But that was only a secondary objective...  

Andrew's mutants had taken over the market area of shanty town, stashed some water bottles there, and then gone off to raid further afield. Jim's mutants and the FMRC were attempting to sneak in and 'redistribute' the water, just as Andrew's crew returned. In the image below, the water stashes are circled in blue, and poor Snogg's cage is outlined in red. Two victory points for each water bottle in a warband's possession at the end of the game, one VP for wounding or taking out an enemy, and two VPs for taking out a leader. Jim chose Night Attack as his balancing ability to bring his warband value up to Andrew's level - I took A Little Bit of Luck. 

Hotshot used his ranger skill to delpoy at the water bottle behind the campervan in the middle of the table. The rookies Snake-Eyes II and Point II were deployed on the FMRC left with Pup, Doc was above them one the roof. Buckshot, Ogg and Frygga were on the right, covered bt Sarge and Heavy on the roof behind them. The plain was for Hotshot to secure the water and immediately pull back; Point and Snake-Eyes were to dash forward and to their right to secure the other near water, while Buckshot and his pet hillfolk went to rescue Snogg. What could possibly go wrong?

In the first turn, Hotshot - who is reckless thanks to earlier wounds - went into a frother and ran away from the water bottle he had deployed next to, running wildly along the campervan towards Andrew's mutants. In so doing, he unstitched the mission plan. Point ran up to secure the water Hotshot had abandoned while Snake-Eyes went for his own bottle alone. Buckshot, Frygga and Ogg started their cautious rescue mission.

As Point pulled back with the campervan water, Jim's mutant mondo, Mongo, came shambling up an ally way and Andrew's mutants started coming into view from the opposite end of the market. Hotshot regained his composure and legged it - running back to the shelter of the rest of the crew. 

Beeb-Boop, Andrew's Depend'o'bot led his outflanking force to swing around my right flank, leaning around cover to fire his large calibre shotgun to take out Frygga with a critical hit despite the poor lighting conditions. The robot would then go on to take out Buckshot without taking a scratch in return.

Following the FMRC's last night engagement, everyone with a gun was equipped with torches. The result was that in this night fight, while we ignored the dark, the torches lit the FMRC up for shooting from both enemy warbands. Hotshot went down early under fire from Gunnar, Jim's LMG-bearer. While Doc made up for his usual tendency to jam his gun by hitting a few of Jim's gang, he would also fall to mutant gunnery. Point had scuttled back into the partial cover of market stalls, but was pursues by Jim's mutant abominations and their tame trogs.

The trogs knocked out Point and stole his water before scurrying off into cover. Mongo went after Snake-Eyes who had been the first FMRC member cause a wound against the hulking ball of muscle. Snake-Eyes managed to extricate himself from the melee - carrying his water with him, and between his own shots and covering fire from heavy, took Mongo out.

Sadly, after all his efforts, Snake-Eyes was then attacked from behind by Beeb-Boop and taken out of action. The robot took the water, and by the end of turn four it looked like the FMRC were written off again. Only three rangers remained in play - Sarge and Heavy on the roof, and the hillman Ogg on the ground. The two mutant bands now had all the water between them, turned on each other, and took their eyes off the prize...

Of course they didn't - they kept their eyes on the prize and fought over the water. Jim's third trog hunted Mr Horny (Andrew's water-bearer) down and ally way, but was ambushed by Hatboy (Andrew's frenzy-prone sniper), who beat him down in melee. While Mr Horny then escaped with the water, the Heavy lined up the last FMRC shot in the skirmish and took Hatboy down with his LMG. Meanwhile, Ogg made a crazed dash at Beep-Boop the depend'o'bot and in a true holiday miracle took the robot out with his stone tools.

At this juncture, with one turn officially left in the game, we had reached an impasse. The FMRC had control of one water bottle - the one that had been picked up by Snake-Eyes, and passed to Ogg via Beep-Boop. Jim had two water bottles, held by the trogs and his own Doc. Andrew also had two bottles. Neither wanted to move from their positions to risk their own gains, and the FMRC were certainly in no position to be rash so we called it there. Despite only getting one bottle of water, and coming nowhere near rescuing Snogg, the FMRC managed enough kills to win the game! Only their second victory out of seven games, but a valiant one.

The rookie Snake-Eyes II sadly died of his wounds, and three other FMRC members were badly banged up, but otherwise, a real success. Jim and Andrew's crew's also suffered further casualties, including Hatboy, Andrew's sniper who has been with his gang from the beginning. It was a sad evening for the muties, only somewhat tempered by being able to spit-roast Snogg.