[renegade scout] 2: a dangerous liaison

here's the follow up to the van heist.

upon checking their loot from the security van, the bonehead skin’s were surprised to find a whole host of security boxes, rather than bags of cash. of course, some of these contained some money and others contained jewellery which they were able to exchange for more cash with a local fence. however, the bulk of their haul comprised wrapped bricks of tightly packed plant material which their fence identified as being the drug melange. the only local group known to be interested in this are the scabies punks. the fence managed to broker a meeting between yossa and one of these punks, mongo smash, at a well known crater in the ruins a few miles out of town. these ruins date from the short conflict between the jamaica VIII system forces and the rogue trader Appollyon Maestrich-Nova (https://bit.ly/3cEAr21) which led to the (largely theoretical) reintegration of the system into imperial space, and now have an evil reputation such that most of the population avoids them.
the arrangement is for yossa to arrive at the meeting on his own to arrange the terms of sale for a later exchange, but the bonehead skin’s are not naive enough for that, so rachel and karen are infiltrating the ruins to provide their boss with covering fire if required. the others remain off-board to provide assistance if things seem to be going wrong (i.e. if they hear gunfire) after D4-1 turns.

yossa's bonehead skins are as before, but dave is looking after the utility walker which is unsuitable for the ruined terrain, so is not available for this game (read: i don't have a dismounted version of the figure)
scabies punks (https://bit.ly/39zJEa0) are pyschos (tier 2) and consist of mongo slash with +1 leadership and twin slug pistols, kat and slash with scrap rifles, judd with an auto slugger equipped with ammo feed, and rab with a sharpshooters slug rifle equipped with sniper sight.

pre-game
i used the character events table from renegade scout sourcebook 1: personalities (https://bit.ly/2vF3Mcb) to determine an event for yossa.
The result was chosen enemy – select one enemy character you fought in close combat or was hit by fire from last battle. you now have a rivalry with them. if none apply, ignore this result. since yossa shot larsson in the last scenario he is now yossa’s chosen enemy and it suddenly become relevant that he survived the previous battle.

here's the table before the game begins:



yossa is in the middle of the bottom edge, with karen on the right and rachel on the left.
mongo smash awaits in the crater. punk counters 1 and 2 are to the rear left and counters 3 and 4 to the rear right.

turn 1

pkriority goes to the bonehead skins despite the punks having an advantage due to laying an ambush.
karen moves 4” towards the wall and shelters to maximise her chances of not being spotted.
punk counter 1 moves 4” to the stairs of the building at the top left of the table and shelters .
rachel moves 2” to establish a firing position behind the ruined corner and shelters.
punk counter 2 moves 4”, reduced to 3” for crossing the remnants of a barbed wire entanglement, down the side of the building to the top left of the table and shelters.
yossa moves 4” towards mongo.
punk counter 3 moves 4” towards the ladder up to the balcony at the front of the building at the top right of the table and shelters.
punk counter 4 moves 4” towards the archway of the building at the top right of the table and shelters.

there is now the opportunity for some of the ambushers to be spotted. punk counter 2 rolls to spot Karen but rolls double 1 giving a spotting range of 5”, so karen remains unseen (note all the punks have the same observation score, so i don’t yet need to determine whom each counter represents).
at this point i realise maximum observation score is 15”, so no-one can yet spot their adversaries, so I move on to turn 2.

here's the table at the end of turn 1:



turn 2

priority alternates to the punks.
punk counter 1 continues 4” up the stairs and shelters.
karen moves 4” along the wall and shelters. she now has line of sight on mongo.
punk counter 2 moves 4” towards the sandbagged crater and shelters.
rachel decides she needs to get closer and moves 4” into the crater and shelters.
punk counter 3 moves 2” to the foot of the ladder and another 2” up it.
yossa moves 4” towards mongo.
punk counter 3 moves 4” towards the smaller doorway and shelters.

no-one is within spotting range of a sheltering figure so i move onto turn 3.

here's the table at the end of turn 2:

Re: a dangerous liaison

turn 3

priority alternates to the bonehead skins.
yossa moves 4” towards mongo.
punk counter 1 moves 2” to the cover of the building, but does not shelter as he now has a clear shot at yossa.
rachel moves 4” across the crater and shelters.
punk counter 2 moves 4” towards mongo.
karen stays where she is and continues to shelter.
punk counter 3 reaches the top of the ladder and moves 2” to his right along the parapet.
punk counter 4 moves 2” to the window, but does not shelter as he now has a clear shot at yossa.

yossa’s observation stat. is only 2, meaning he can spot a maximum of 14”; none of the punks are in range for him.
punk counter 1 is revealed as rab. he takes a shot at yossa with his sharpshooters slug rifle at long range, but rolls a six (this should mean he has to reload next turn, but i forgot this rule at the time; subsequent events will make this oversight moot) and misses, how embarasing. he can now be targetted by all the bonehead skins. yossa passes his cool under fire test.
yossa retaliates against mongo smash, trusting karen will take out the sniper, and opening up on him full auto with his rattle gun with ammo feed at close range, hitting once but failing to damage. mongo passes his cool under fire test.
punk counter 3 is revealed as judd. he opens up on yossa, and hits once with a 1 allowing another shot which misses. the single hit fails to do any damage. judd is now a viable target for the bonehead skins. yossa fails his cool under fire test and hits the dirt; he’s not within 2” of any cover, so goes prone where he is. he now cannot do anything until the end of next turn’s shooting phase.
karen can’t fire as she is sheltering.
punk counter 4 is revealed as kat; she takes a long range shot at yossa, who is now in hard cover, but misses.
rachel can’t fire as she is sheltering.
mongo smash fires his twin slug pistols at the prone yossa, who i count as in soft cover from the rim of the crater, hits once and wounds taking yossa out of the fight.
punk counter 2 no longer has line of sight on anyone.

here's the table at the end of turn 3:



turn 4

alerted by gunfire the rest of the bonehead skins will come onto the table on turn 5.
priority alternates to the punks.

pychos have this special rule:
I just want to talk to you: When selecting a Psycho Unit in the Movement Phase, roll 2D6.
If the roll is above the Cool Under Fire rating, the Unit must Charge the closest visible enemy.

punk counter 2 can only be slash; she passes her i just want to talk to you test and runs >6” towards the window facing karen.
rachel moves 2” towards the wall, seeking cover from judd, and shelters.
mongo smash passes his i just want to talk to you test and runs 7” into the cover of the walls on the centre left tile.
karen moves 1” to her right to get a better shot at mongo.
slash passes her i just want to talk to you test and moves 4” around the corner of the ruined building and towards rachel, then shelters.
rab fails his i just want to talk to you test and starts to clamber down the rubble towards karen. this is difficult terrain so his charge is only 4”.
judd passes his i just want to talk to you test and moves 3” along the parapet to get within range of karen; he has line of sight on both the remaining bonehead skins currently on table.

judd cannot spot rachel as she is out of maximum possible range, so fires at karen, but it turns out she is still out of range.
karen fires at mongo at long range, hits and wounds, taking him out of the fight.
slash ran and rab charged, so neither can shoot this turn.

i seem to have failed to take a photo at the end of this turn.

turn 5

priority alternates to the bonehead skins. i decide to randomise which tile the rest of them will enter on.
pricey enters on the left and moves 4” to the wall near karen.
rab passes his i just want to talk to you test and runs 8" towards the window adjacent to slash.
jammy enters on the right and runs 8” towards the wall by rachel.
kat fails her i just want to talk to you test and charges 8” towards rachel.
connie enters on the right and follows jammy 8” towards the wall.
judd now has visible targets in range so is happy to stay where he is.
karen stays where she is, as do slash and rachel.

rachel fires at the charging kat and hits due to the short range; the hit wounds and kat is out of the fight.
judd turns his fire on rachel, hitting with one dice and wounding her to take her out of the fight. jammy and connie will have to test for morale since they are within 4" of rachel.
karen spots slash and fires at her, missing. slash fails her cool under fire test and goes prone.
no-one else can fire this turn.
connie passes her morale test, but jammy fails by 1 and is pinned. he cannot move and is at -2 shooting and melee until he rallies at the end of turn 6.

here's the table at the end of turn 5:

Re: a dangerous liaison

turn 6

priority alternates to the punks.
rab fails his i just want to talk to you test and charges 8” towards karen.
pricey hops over the wall and runs 6” in the direction of judd, seeking to get in range with his grenade launcher.
judd holds his position.
connie moves 2” to the wall, hops over it, and then moves into cover behind the next wall out of judd’s line of sight.
karen holds her position and draws a bead on the charging rab.
jammy shelters behind the wall,

karen is the only one who can fire this turn; she shoots at rab, hits and wounds, taking him out of the fight.
slash recovers from hitting the dirt.

jammy recovers from being pinned.

the rules suggest a six turn game, which I would normally ignore in favour of resolving the scenario, but the punks have taken 60% casualties and are now outnumbered 2:1 so i decide they will withdraw next turn unless they fail i just want to talk to you tests.

here;s the table at the end of turn 6:



turn 7

both judd and slash pass their i just want to talk to you tests so i call the game there.

post-game

yossa makes an immediate recovery and gains 5 exp. for a total of 9.
connie gains 6 exp,. for a total of 12; she can gain an advance before the next game.
jammy gains 2 exp., for a total of 9.
rachel makes an immediate recovery and gains 5 exp. for a total of 10; she can gain an advance before the next game.
pricey gains 6 exp. for a total of 13; he can gain an advance before the next game.
karen gains 9 exp. for a total of 14; she can gain an advance before the next game.

the bonehead skins can now loot the casualties; they roll two 1s and gain rab's sharpshooter's slug rifle with sniper sight.

should it become relevant mongo smash gains a short term injury; kat and rab are both permanent losses.