Something smells fishy - Sturmm's renegades VS Prius' Preator Infiltrators

Ok, so I’ve decided to something different for this report. If you are just interested in the blow to blow, skip the bit’s in <i>italics</i>. If you want a more cinematic feel, read it all.

The mission was a new one, which we tested for inclusion in the next version of TLRB. The defenders (me with IG) set up first, but the officers are represented by tokens (we used colored dice). It was the job of the (renegade) attackers to identify the officers and figure out who the assassination target is. The target dies, the attackers win, the target lives and the defenders win…If you are wondering about the title; the centerpiece scenery was a chemical plant...

On to the report.


“Oh man, I let rip a big one!”
Tired of hearing the same joke for the fifth time within an hour sergeant Severus shook his head. “Yeah, we get it, this bombed out chem plant stinks, will you give it a rest Marcus?” Lieutenant Marcus shrugged, the thin traces of vapor making weird swirls around his shoulders as he did so. He casually looked over at one of the pools of sickly green muck.
“I don’t care, as long as Captain Quintus and Lieutenant Gaius are in the infirmary I am in command, so you are commanded to laugh at my jokes, no matter how lame.” He pointed over at Sergeant Cassius, “You see, he is smiling.”
Severus turned his head and saw Cassius casually kick a bleached skull in one of the chemical pools, on his face sarcastic smile. “You know as well as I do that Cassius only has three facial expressions, ‘twas so even before he got himself all cut up.” He retorted. Marcus shrugged again and hefted his heavy stubber over a low wall. Why they were sent to patrol this useless destroyed chemical plant was anyone’s guess. “Still, he is not looking angry, so I gather he likes my jokes.”
“What is his third expression?” a new voice interjected. Marcus turned to face the new Sergeant Avitus who had posed the question and started to answer but was cut off when Cassius spoke up, “Will you guys be silent, even an Ogryn can hear your blubbering about.”
Marcus smiled, bending over closer to Avitus. “That was it, disdain, his third and final facial expression,” he spoke in a hushed voice. He straightened back up. “He is right though, let’s focus back on the job. Otho, Tacitus, are the northern entrances booby-trapped?”
The two soldiers nodded. “There is one at the southeastern approach as well,” the third infantryman, Tracius, spoke up eagerly.
“Good,” Marcus nodded his approval, “Tracius, why don’t you come with me to the north side to make our rounds, Severus, you check out southeast, Pius and Aelius go with Cassius to the un-‘trapped southwest corner of the building and Tacitus and Otho can check the southern wall with Avitus.”


The Guard, as defenders, set up mostly on the south side of the factory floor. As of yet it was unknown which officer was who to the attackers, so they are represented by dice.








Marcus and Tracius didn’t even get halfway across the factory floor when the sharp crack of a lasgun echoed through the factory. Keenly aware of the fact that none of them where issued with las-weapons he pulled Tracius behind the cover of some sort of pumping station. “Report!” He shouted, and a reply was quick to come back in the voice of flamer trooper Aelius, “Man down! I repeat, Pius is down”. Marcus swore, who was he to send to medically aid the medic? He could not even formulate an answer before hearing the frantic shouts of Severus, “Contact on the Southeastern approach. Multiple hostiles!” Marcus’ brain was working on overdrive, both southern entrances seemed to be under attack. The loud bangs of Severus’s solid ammunition pistol almost drowned out his next words ”Grazed one… Throne, they’ve got an Ogryn.”


Medic Pius is the first to get taken OOA, with a headshot no less from the renegade enforcer. Sergeant Severus was spotted by the largest group approaching from the southeast and in the defenders turn knocks down a worker. The rest deploys against the wall for some cover and good firing positions. This revealed Sergeant Avitus and Sergeant Cassius, making Lieutenant Marcus the assassination target for the attackers.







Marcus, now pretty much stuck in the middle of the factory, heard a bang form the northern side of the factory and recognized them as a booby-trap going off. “Surrounded, great, what are we, airborne?” he muttered under his breath as he peeked around the corner of his cover. The northwestern corner was obscured by smoke, but he could see movement. The northeastern boobytrap seemed to have missed the renegade worker sneaking by it. Tracius, however, hadn’t and opened fire with his autorifle. The worker caught some solid hits and doubled over, but was clearly still alive. “Seems like we are stuck here for now.”


The booby-traps didn’t manage to do much. The northwestern one blowing up without wounding, the northeastern one not going off at all. As the renegades got into position, recruit Tracius stuns the worker near the northeastern boobytrap, keeping him in the blast zone.





On the south side things did not go so well. Another pair of cracks of lasfire came from the two renegade marksmen, one hitting Aelius, who had moved to the southeastern approach to help out, knocking him on his back. The other hit Otho, spraying blood all over Tacitus. Shocked, Tacitus ducked back into the cover of the wall but was quickly dragged up by Cassius, who was displaying emotion number two, anger, on his face. “Return fire you moron.” Shakily Tacitus got back up and started blasting, but he could not get a kill.
Marcus could hear the fire intensify and could now spot a third worker moving through the smoke in the north. Deciding to add his own firepower to the mix he yanked the loading mechanism and swiveled the large heavy stubber towards his target. A roar erupted form the barrel as hundreds of solid rounds streamed from his barrel towards the renegade, taking him out.


Another recruit gets a headshot from the renegades and the flamer gets knocked down. Lieutenant Marcus manages to kill another worker with his stubber. The boobytrap on the southeastern approach goes off, but does nothing. The renegades move in closer. The northeast boobytrap once again does not detect the worker, now recovering to knocked out, and still does not go off.









”Why do I have the feeling they are coming for me?” Marcus wondered out loud as some weapons fire hit the wall he was using as cover. “I don’t think they are coming for just you, sir,” Tracius answered in fear as he glanced southward. In the southwest a renegade with shotgun had entered the factory, his shotgun barking. Already Tacitus was bleeding on the floor and Cassius was alone, holding that flank. The southeastern entrance was even worse. Somehow the renegade Ogryn had managed to scale the stairs unharmed and was now charging the still barely conscious Aelius. It all happened so fast Marcus barely had time to turn his weapon around to face this new threat. Aelius was stomped to death even before he could return fire, the sickening sound of cracking ribs barely audible over the carnage of gunfire. The sight of the huge hulking monster standing over the apparent lifeless body of Aelius made something snap. As one the men started shooting at the Ogryn. Small and large caliber bullets slammed into the large creature. A look of confusion appeared on its face, just before he collapsed on the ground, slowly bleeding out.
Cassius’s facial expression switched to his usual sarcastic smile as he charged the renegade with the shotgun. The sight of Cassius' scarred face, combined with his smile rooted the renegade to the spot. Cassius thumbed the activator of his chainsword and the weapon roared to life. With a savage high slash that resulted in a lot of blood and gore he took the renegade out without a blink.


In the south the assault begins in earnest as a renegade trooper shotguns a recruit to death and the Orgryn charges the knocked out flamer, dispatching him easely. Fearing the havoc the Orgryn could cause all fire is directed at it and is taken OOA. Cassius charges the trooper with the shotgun and takes him out with a critical hit.







”They are still coming!” Severus shouted over the echoing booms of solid ammunition weapons and high pierced cracks of lasfire echoing through the chemical plant. Marcus rolled his eyes as he once again dodged behind cover to avoid some bolter fire seeming to come from a heavily armored figure coming from the northwest. He looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place his finger on it. “It’s that renegade mayor Sturmm sir,” Tracius offered as he saw the quizzical look on Marcus’ face. “I recognize him from some of the recon photo’s. He’s a high value target apparently.”
Marcs frowned, “I seem to be a high value target for him…” He was interrupted by s screaming worker running closer. Recognizing him as the closest threat Marcus aimed his stubber and squeezed the trigger. A stream of bullets flew through the air and ripped to the worker, seemingly reducing him to a pile of steaming flesh. The coordinated fire of the defenders seemed to have its effect and returning fire was lessening.


The northwestern boobytrap finally goes off, not doing anything useful. At all. The worker now back on his feet once again moves closer to Marcus and Tracius, but now becoming the closest target attracts the fire of the heavy stubber. With an amazing 3 shots with 3 6’s the worker has to endure about 5 wounds resulting from different critical hit effects. Needless to say, the unarmored model in the open did not survive…




With the fire lessening it seemed time to fall back to Marcus, all he had to do now was to choose an exit. He considered north for a moment before noticing even more enemies coming in through that side. He swore under his breath. “Tracius, we need an exit. North is out, but we can’t allow them to sandwich us in between their forces. A pair of low booms echoed in from the southeast before Sergeant Severus’ voice could be heard. “Southeast is clear, might I suggest a speedy exit?”
Marcus grinned, Severus maybe was a humorless bastard, but he did come through in a pinch. “Tracius, cover me while I drag this damn thing to the exit,” he nodded to his heavy stubber, the barrels of it steaming from the heat generated by firing it. Tracius nodded, his light weight autogun would make it a lot easier for him to speedily make his exit after ensuring the survival of his LT.

The renegades start to miss everything (maybe Sturmm’s V.I.S.S.I.O.N. nomination was a just one?). In the IG turn Sergeant severus manages to shoot the last of the renegades approaching form the Northeast, opening up a passage for the IG to escape from.





”Will you hurry up?” Tacitus shouted as the fire intensified again. Marcus, breathing heavily, let out another burst of fire while walking backwards, another attacker crumbled but there seemed to be no end to them. “Working on it…” Marcus hissed. On the northeastern exit Avitus was gesturing wildly for him to keep walking. “Yeah yeah. Tacitus, I’m nearly there, come on over.” Tacitus turned, ready to take a sprint. At that precise moment he caught a bolt round form Sturmm in the shoulder. With a shout he fell to the ground where he remained lying still. The screaming of the heavy stubber drowned out the shouts of anger from Marcus. Spent shell casings chattered on the floor for what seemed to be an eternity and when the drum clicked dry there was no enemy in sight. More disturbingly though, there were barely any bodies left either.


The game ends after turn 7 because of its random game length and Marcus is well on its way of escaping. Still, another turn and a lucky shot (ha, with that female with BS4 and a red dot laser targeter on Sturmm’s team who still could not hit the side of a barn from 2 meters away, fat chance) and it could have ended badly on the side of the defenders. The bastards did manage to take out brave Tracius covering the retreat though!










In the post battle The renegade Flamer is the only permanent casualty and we both got away with a good load of credits, some good experience (Marcus got two advancements, being the winning leader, surviving target and he had plenty of kills) and a really fun game.

I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope I did Sturmm’s squad justice in the report. In the first halve I really felt like I was losing, but that switched around a bit the moment the Orgyn got gunned down. It was fun and exciting and had a blast.

Scary Sergeant Cassius says hi:

Superb battle report - absolutely loved it - especially the cinematic italic parts. The chem plant centrepiece for this battle is genius (great idea to use the side of a packing box). Great job - I wish I could come and play with my Varangians!

Cheers Laney

Nice report, good mix of in-character and "blow-by-blow" text. Things looked really quite desperate, with the ogryn wading into the fight and your flamer going OOA without a chance to do some damage. Shame about the booby-traps being quite so ineffective, but maybe they had a psychological effect, channelling your opponent's movement?

Regards,

Jammer

Colonel Prius wrote:

Ok, so I’ve decided to something different for this report. If you are just interested in the blow to blow, skip the bit’s in <i>italics</i>. If you want a more cinematic feel, read it all.

Whoever does NOT read it all, will get a visit from HER...


I hope that my point that I LOVED THE CINEMATIC FEEL OF YOUR GAME is clear (and I'm willing to summon Warp Entities to force people to read it), my comments.

WOW! COOL REPORT MAN! It has THE best opening I have EVER read for a Battle Report... “Oh man, I let rip a big one!” ... an instant classic if you ask me! I really like the combination of cinematic and game-mechanics... I tend to go heavy on cinematic, low on game-mechanics. I would definitely adopt your style. Expect royalty checks on the mail...

I would have BET good money that you were going to loose... that Ogryn was freaking me out... those #@&$^%! white-eyes... the 1st thing I saw in every picture! That thing STILL is screaming at me "I will kill you while you sleep!" I actually cheered when he went down! AMAZING game! The terrain was marvelous... and the use of shadows to hide the unpainted models (I'm 100% sure this was intentional) made it look real!

Thank you for sharing. EXCELLENT! Looking forward to your next adventure!

BRAVO!! Excellent writing. It sucked up all my attention, escpacially the dialogue between squad members.

This way of writing needs endorsment..

Oh yeah baby!!! Turn me ON! Love it. Let's do this all the time (apart from the losing bit).

Apart from the fact I lost this particular scenario (also). It was a GREAT game. I had a lot of fun!

Prius: you're the man! Though things were pretty much going my way in the first half or so, it started raining snake eyes all over again during the second half. I will give sarge Barbie some serious spanking for not hitting anything with all that expensive and sophisticated weaponry. "What is it with you woman? Going all soft on me now? Huh?! Stop sobbing, you're messing up my armor".

Maybe I will give the red dot sight thingy to someone else.

Postbattle was not bad at all. Though I first forgot to use the Resource Pendulum I had bought after the previous battle. Because of all the snake eyes I roll I thought such a trinket would come in handy. Prius, being the sportive one, allowed me to re-roll my 1 later on. That made me a lot happier I tell you.

Well, catch you later dude!

Major Sturmm

PS: Mord; who's the Bimbo? I would be more than glad to have her in my squad!
Djeezus man? Where did you find this specimen? And don't tell me she's your girl ...

Greeting! Sturmm

Awesome report!
A report you can enjoy without looking at the pictures is a report well written.

Major Sturmm wrote:

Though things were pretty much going my way in the first half or so, it started raining snake eyes all over again during the second half.

Did I just read a... CONFESSION?!? The good people from V.I.S.I.O.N. (link) will have to visit you soon. I think you need to get ready, because...

Ouch! In my face man! And one below the belt ... This hurts, it really hurts ...

At least the cat has our kind of eyes ... Snake eyes?

PROOF!! STURMM CONFESSED!!

I demand he is made V.I.S.I.O.N. public enemy no.1 at once!

Done!

first: BEST REPORT EVER!!!


.......Incoming message...........

Impressive, Colonel Prius
We pickt up this message after we scant this planet for resources.
My men were eager the 'rip you a new one' as you said. After landing nearby the chamical plant, we soon discoverd that their where no more lifeforms to eliminate.

After researching the data, we discoverd that you are the same one that killed MY WARLOCK! and tared my aspact warrior to pieces.
We succeded to put him back together, BUT the death of my warlock is carved on your soul.

........

Know this:
WE WILL FIND YOU PRIUS!
WE WILL KILL YOU!

We will meet again prius, we will meet again.

Be afraid.......be very afraid.


Death squad leader,
Azuran

................End of transmission......................


Sorry I missed the DS event.... I dont have al lot of time be I will do everything in my power to be there next time.

I know prius can wright awesome stuff, but i was so intrigued by the story I did not stop reading before i read every letter in this report. one word: AWESOME!

You guys freaking rock!!!!

I love the report, loved the pics.

Yeah, and I think I'm gonna let Mord's bimbo (the one from the pic of course ) rock Arachas a bit more! In fact: I insist. Mord: send her over!

Your wish is my command. I see what I can do.