Lead Legionaries: Chopper Down...Salvage!! Post-Apoc Scenario

One of the many 'bad guys' that showed up to attack the players -- a Machine Patrol bot

I'd been waiting for an available Sunday evening to run the sixth scenario of our post-apocalyptic campaign. After the cooperative game of "Where the Dark Things Gather," this would be a competitive one. In the beginning, players were avoiding shooting each other. Eventually, though, they got into the spirit of it and began blazing away at each other around the smouldering, downed helicopter. The back story was that their survivor gang had seen a military chopper go down but with no resulting explosion. They surmised the pilot must have auto-rotated a soft enough landing, which meant one thing: available salvage!

The players map out their routes towards the downed chopper in the middle of the board

Only four of my players were available, so I sat out and GM'd the affair. Each started in their respective corner back edge and began moving towards the center of the board where my recently-constructed downed chopper terrain piece was placed. I had six potential salvage spots, two on the helicopter's base and four flung out 10" in each of the the cardinal directions. The center spot was an intersection in a heavily damaged section of a city. Wrecked vehicles blocked sight lines along the roads leading to the chopper. The rest of the board was filled with my ruined buildings and urban scatter that I have been working steadily on now for a couple years.

The view from my end of the table with the Bass Reeves on the left and the Bucknuts the right

The players were unaware that I had increased the chance of arrival of wandering "bad guys." Normally, after each 10% casualties on the board, something appears -- usually a Machines Scout Bot. As each
subsequent 10% level is reached, they go up to a Patrol Bot, then Military Bot, and (maybe one day) Destroyer Bot. I gave a 50/50 chance that the Scout Bot would be an aerial drone instead. Same stats, but flying. I also gave a 50/50 chance it would be a ground creature drawn by the noise of the gunfire. I had my giant rats (ROUS's - Rodents Of Unusual Size) and feral dogs out, but only the rats arrived other than machines. At one point, I had four bad guys on the board, but it was usually just one or two at a time. In addition, before the 10% casualty level was reached, I gave a 20% chance a bad guy would show up.

As the Followers of the Dark Prophet were sneaking forward, a Scout Drone appeared in their rear

A new innovation this time (that I will likely continue using), was that I had the players "roll off" to see whose sector the bad guy showed up in. Low roller got the creature or machine. Everyone except Joel had a bad guy show up in their sector. Some of them did no damage to the players -- the Bass Reeves killed the ROUS with a shotgun blast after its first move couldn't contact one of their survivors. Others suffered heavily. The lethal Bucknuts lost two of their four men to a rabid ROUS. Allen's Followers of the Dark Prophet had two guys wounded and downed, but each time luckily drew an Ace or Queen of Hearts next turn to recover.

Brutus & Jackie of the Bucknuts use the available cover of vehicle wrecks to close in on the chopper

On the section of the board closest to me, the Bucknuts and Bass Reeves deployed opposite each other. They did not advance forward, but both began to shift laterally towards the center. The Bucknuts were the first to dash someone forward to snag salvage that had been flung from the wreck. The Bass Reeves sent Dreadz climbing up the tall, corner ruin to obtain a great sniper spot. He held off on shooting any of the rival survivors until the Bass Reeves were attacked first. Dreadz was also lucky to move early in the turn, when he began his climb. Shortly after he scrambled up a couple levels, a ROUS appeared well within range of where he'd been standing. Frustrated by the disappearance of the human it had (apparently) been stalking, it charged across to the gang's leader, Big Bass. Hearing it skittering towards him, but coming up short, Big Bass stepped around the corner of a building and blasted it with his shotgun. It gave a squeal and went down for good, relegated from a threat to rat burgers with one shot!

The Bass Reeves stalk laterally through the ruins, using the walls of buildings as cover

Across from the Bass Reeves, firing broke out as the Followers of the Dark Prophet reacted to the sudden appearance of a Scout Drone Bot from behind them. It whirred forward and blasted away, wounding one of the dark-robed survivors. The remaining three members whirled round and blasted away at the drone, Eventually, Dafyd hit a vital spot on the machine and it dropped to the ground. More salvage! Across from Allen's troops, his brother Joels' F Troop was taking advantage of the distraction provided by the drone to advance closer to the smouldering wreck. No signs could be seen of any survivors. Had they escaped on foot, or had the rats gotten to them? No one was sure, but their looked to be all kinds of things to loot from the helicopter -- ammunition boxes, rations, medical kits, and electronic components.

The Scout Drone is no match for the firepower of the Followers of the Dark Prophet!

At this point, the lure of avarice took over. The survivor gangs ended their unspoken truce and began firing at each other. Ironically, it was Joel's F Troop who fired the first shot -- at his brother! We joke how Allen's wife admonishes Joel every Sunday evening when he picks up her hubby to "not kill your brother!" So, it is a running gag that sometimes they follow her directives and other times all bets are off. F Troop had moved Pvt. Picnic up near the chopper while the other three remained behind vehicles and walls to cover him. Not to be beaten to the punch, Allen moved Dafyd (who'd knocked down the drone) up to contest the salvage. Shots were fired, but both men remained standing.

A standoff between Bucknut's Jackie and Amram of the Followers, each wanting the salvage

Allen took that as cue to sprint Amram towards the metal box that could be seen on the ground, just feet away from the helicopter. Amram was astonished when Jackie ran up, as well. Both looked from the metal box to the other, sizing each other up. Shots rang out all around them as men and women from all four factions began firing at each other. The "Bad Guys" added to the cacophony as a Patrol Bot clomped onto the board's far edge. Its machine gun had plenty of range, though, and it blasted away and another of the Followers of the Dark Prophet fell to the ground wounded.

The firefight around the chopper is truly underway, with all four factions firing at each other

Someone fired at Ned of the Bass Reeves, and that gang of survivors joined in the shooting, as well. Tosh took advantage of the confusion to sprint forward and snag the closest piece of salvage, a duffel bag that looked as if it had been tossed from the helicopter on impact. The players had been careful in the early turns, and minimized exposing their survivors to enemy fire. However, risks were taken now as the desire to snatch up the loot before their rivals overcame their caution. One of the early successes, Wrich of the Bucknuts, had dashed back to what he thought was the safety of the buildings after snatching up a box of ammunition he'd seen lying in the street. He ducked behind the walls, panting from the exertion, relieved that he was no longer in the open street.

Brutus felled by an ROUS - the second Bucknut to be knocked out of action by the hulking beast

A high pitched shreik from behind him startled Wrich. He turned, horrified, as a ROUS bore down on him. He spun, leveling his rifle, but too late. The giant rat was upon him and clamped him in his jaws. The beast shook him back and forth battering his head several times against the stone walls. Wrich went limp and lost consciousness. In the ruins of the next building over, Brutus saw the attack and inadvertently shouted, "Jesus H. Christ!" The rat heard him, dropped the unmoving prey from its jaws and began skittering towards Brutus. The large man screamed in terror and tried to slam home the magazine he'd been loading into his weapon. He fumbled and the metal magazine clattered to the ground. The ROUS launched itself at Brutus and seized him him by the shoulder. Brutus was a big man, but the rat's weighed dashed him to the ground, senseless.

As bullets from rival factions ricochet all around, F Troop hunkers behind a burnt-out pickup truck

All the shouting drew the attention of Coach Coop, the Bucknuts leader. He shifted to get a better angle on the rat and let loose a burst of his assault rifle. The creature turned and bared its bloody jaws at him. Coop cursed and drew a bead on its beady eyes and fired twice. The rat let out its last squeal and fell dead. Coop called to Jackie to fall back, and moved up to see if his friend was still alive. Many of the survivors looked up as another Scout Drone whirred overhead, the machine's guns blazing at their human foes. Bullets kicked up all around F Troop's Pvt. Picnic and he fell to the ground, clutching his shoulder. Meanwhile, the Followers of the Dark Prophet called to each other and began to withdraw from the open streets, moving through the ruins towards the table edge.

Bucknut leader Coach Coop grimaces at his losses as Joel surveys the field and does likewise

The casualties and increasing number of machines and feral denizens of the city convinced the factions it was time to pull back. Those that could grab some last salvage or supplies did so, while hugging the cover of the ruined buildings. All of them had taken hits and most had at least one of their four out of action. The Bucknuts and F Troop were each down to half strength. Carrying their wounded, they withdrew from the bloodied intersection. Each hoped that the blood spilled was worth the rewards they had gained.

F Troop utilizes the cover of the ruins and wrecks to move up early in the game

I felt the scenario had started out a little slow, but it picked up speed and was a blazing hot mess by the end. The players were laughing and having a good time spraying their rivals with gunfire at each opportunity. I really liked giving the players "control" over where the enemies appeared by having them roll off. Allen saved his worst rolls for then, but in general his Followers of the Dark Prophet came on top. They picked up two caches of supplies, knocked out a drone, two rivals (Ned of the Bass Reeves and Pvt. Angel of F Troop), and escaped with all four members off-board. His success may lead to future challenges, though, as I give players who lost a member to enemy fire bonus victory points in subsequent missions for exacting revenge and taking out one of theirs.

Wrich of the Bucknuts creeps closer to the salvage at his feet, while keeping an eye out for enemy

Joel's F Troop took it on the chin, again. I'm not sure why, but fortune has not favored this former army unit in its post-apocalyptic missions. Joel escaped with no supplies and lost two members (both of whom fortunately ended up being just "winged" and okay for the next scenario). The rat-ravaged Bucknuts discovered a weakness in their formerly lethal, long-range tactics. They lost two members to an ROUS, Wrich being just "winged" while fleshy Brutus will recover with some rest time. They did kill one rat and escape with one cache of supplies, so all was not lost.

Pvt. Picnic goes down to a Machines Scout Drone as F Troops sour luck in scenarios continues

Mike W's Bass Reeves picked up three caches of supplies (which includes carving off enough rat burgers for a feast). They carried Ned off the battlefield (who fortunately was also just "winged") and killed the ROUS. All in all, the players rolled VERY well in their post-battle recoveries. It could have been much worse for them. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Now that I retire in just over a month, we hopefully will be playing more post-apocalyptic scenarios soon. Then again, don't I say that every time after every game??