FUBAR: The Rumble in the Jungle

Introduction

I've mentioned FUBAR before (here); it's a 1-page, fast-play set of rules for squad-level Science Fiction combat games.  Since I was at a bit of a loss when deciding what to bring to the games club this week, I thought I'd give it another outing.  It's been a while since I last played these rules.

FUBAR is adaptable to a wide variety of settings.  For example, it's sometimes used as a free alternative to Warhammer 40K or for games with Star Wars clix figures.  However I though that I would bring out some of my old VOID miniatures instead (note that these are still available from Scotia Grendel).  In this game, the Viridians (fervent ecologists) would attack a Syntha (cold cyborgs) outpost.

I think I may be getting something of a reputation at the club.  When one of the regular players saw the setup for this game, he asked nervously "Does this involve bugs?"  Of course, my answer was "Why?  Would that worry you?" (mua-ha-ha!).  It's true that I have used my Viridians in "bug hunt" games before, but there wouldn't be any hordes of monsters on this occasion!

The Scenario

This would be a very simple game: the Syntha have set up a base in the centre of the jungle and the Viridians don't like the mess they're making.  The attackers must wipe out the base, whilst the defenders must hold on!

The Syntha's southern defences.  2 squads (one of robots, one of humans) man the sandbag wall while "Hades-40" stands ready in the background

Syntha troops are all deployed on the table from the start.  They have:

• 2 tanks (one is much better camouflaged than the other and may be quite hard to spot in the picture above).  Very powerful.
• A troop of grav-bikes.  Fast and heavily armed, but unarmoured.
• Several squads of robots, big and small - a mixture of androsynths and teratosynths, if you're interested.  Well armed, somewhat armoured, but not very bright.
• 2 squads of (slightly) modified human marines.
• ...and finally, a pair of biomechs - mechanically-enhanced cyborg super-soldiers.

The Viridian force would be split into 2 parts; each would enter from a different end of the table.  Total force is as follows:

• 2 behemoths (dinosaur-like "tanks")
• Several squads of power-armoured troopers.
• Several squads of regular infantry.
• 1 scout squad, mounted on fast, bipedal lizards.

Since the Syntha had 2 commanders and the Viridians had 4, I expected the attackers to have a significant command and control advantage.  In FUBAR, when a player fails an activation roll for one of his units then his turn is over.  On average, the Viridians should have been able to activate about twice as many units as the Syntha for each round.  I hoped that this would compensate the attackers for the defenders' semi-prepared positions.

The Game

Oh, there's the second Syntha tank: "Nemesis-41"

The crashing of something large through trees was the first the Syntha knew of the attack on their base.  A Viridian assault behemoth broke through the foliage and its gauss cannons all opened fire on the nearest defending tank, wrecking its grav-drive.  Powered infantry could be seen close behind the monster.

Quickly recovering from their surprise, the defenders returned fire.  The tank fired its star-cannon at the behemoth and stunned it with a near miss, while the marines blazed away on some hapless Viridian troopers who were in the open.  These were quickly suppressed and suffered casualties; they remained pinned in this position for a number of turns until the Syntha eventually found a higher priority target.

The disoriented behemoth failed to activate, as did all of the Viridian southern command.  Figuring that they were only being attacked from 1 direction after all, the Syntha moved some of their large robots into a position where they could see the creature.  A superb shot from the 'bots managed to break one of the behemoth's legs and destroy the nearer gauss cannon.  From now on the Viridian creature couldn't move and had only half its original fire-power.  I would have said that it was a sitting duck - except that it doesn't look anything like a duck!

Finally, the other part of the Viridian attack arrived, from the south.  The Syntha pretty much ignored them, because (a) the attackers were still a fair way off and (b) they didn't seem to know what to do with themselves.

In another part of the northern assault, a Viridian squad had crossed the river.  They hoped that this movement hadn't been seen, but the 2 biomechs were waiting for them.  The armoured infantry turned out to be no match for the super-soldiers and hit the dirt to avoid casualties.

When the Syntha grav-bikes joined in, the attackers started to take losses, despite their armour.  Eventually this infantry squad was wiped out.

Nemesis-41 was busy receiving a software update [i.e. the tank failed its activation roll for several turns in a row], so a Viridian assault squad seized the opportunity to race across the bridge and assault the nearby infantry.  Despite being outclassed, the Syntha troopers defended heroically; both sides were still locked in melee by the end of the game.

At the southern end of the table, the other Viridian behemoth and supporting infantry began edging past the Syntha positions.

For a moment, this looked like a dangerous move.  However, a very lucky missile from the emplaced Syntha infantry detonated the ammunition in the behemoth's howdah, killing the creature and all crew.  The 2 defending biomechs also raced towards the scene, making the nearby Viridian troopers very uneasy.

The worried troopers quickly found that they couldn't draw a bead on the fast-moving biomechs; most shots were dodged and the few which seemed to strike home had no effect.  In return, the cyborgs made mincemeat of the humans, killing one outright and sending others sprawling for cover in the dirt.

Conclusion

By the end of the game (when time was up!), the Viridian attack seemed to have stalled.  Various units were exchanging fire with their Syntha counterparts, but this was fairly desultory.  The one possible success could have been the Viridian assault troopers attack in the north, but a counter-attack from assault robots was expected imminently.  Finally, the defenders still had quite a lot of their forces available as a mobile reserve - Hades-40, the 3 grav-bikes and the 2 biomechs - whereas the Viridian scouts were the only unit the attackers hadn't committed.  I'd say that the Syntha have managed to hold their position very effectively!

So, how did FUBAR work out?  It's certainly quick to play and the unit activation rules force the players to concentrate on what really matters at the time.  Overall I think it's a very useful set of rules, though a lot depends on the attributes you create for your models.

Being caught in the open is bad news, especially for unarmoured infantry.  Not many models died, at least in part because my squads were small and therefore had limited fire-power, but the suppression certainly limited what units could do.

I'm not really a fan of "partial" damage for tanks or other vehicles (e.g. loss of a weapon, mobility or other attributes).  Because of this rule, most of the "vehicles" in the north survived the entire game, albeit with various bits shot off.  Only the luckiest hit would truly destroy such a model!

Unit of the match: the 2 Syntha biomechs, without a doubt.  They were fast, elusive and hard-hitting.  Their elite rating meant that they would activate on a 2+; this made them extremely active.  Indeed, with the exception of the one dead behemoth and its crew, they caused almost all the fatalities in the entire game.

Most useless: I think I'd have to go for the Viridian scouts.  For a long time they refused to come on to the table.  When they finally arrived, they skulked about in the woods and hid so well that they don't even appear in any of the photographs.  At least all of the other units on both sides used their weapons, even if they didn't all hit anything.  Apart from the assault synths, that is - but they were an obvious reserve in case the perimeter was breached!

A few Character Cards for ATZ

We've been out today at the cinema, seeing The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.  Since the film is quite long and travelling to even our nearest cinema takes a while, I haven't much time for today's post.

I thought it would be nice to remind people about one of my earliest blog posts: ATZ Character Cards.  This was a surprisingly popular article (well, it surprised me) and that early success helped a lot in making me decide to continue blogging.

Anyway, there has to be something new in this post, else you'll all get bored and go away.  I've designed a fair number of new characters for All Things Zombie since the initial publication.  My oldest son has also prepared some cards for his own miniatures.  Here are some of them; see what you think...

Doctor Pertwee is an eccentric old academic, but very much a man of action rather than an ivory tower dreamer.  He has an extraordinary ability with machinery, though his strongly-held principles won't allow him to attack anything.  His female companion is fond of adventure, but tends to lose her head when danger looms.

"And they called it puppy love..."  These 2 teenagers are besotted with each other; if anything happened to one of them then the other would surely die!

There's a very strong trope (I can't think of the name) that has most of the soldiers in a unit, players in a team or buddies in a group as fairly useless.  It's up to the square-jawed leader to save the day.  So it is with these guys too...

That's all for now, folks!  Until next time, goodbye...

ATZ (B Team-3): Complaining to the Police

Introduction

In Game-2 of my B-team All Things Zombie campaign, 3 friends tried to run a police blockade.  This turned out to be a complete disaster, as Bob was arrested, Sam ended up in hospital and Bert was shot and killed.  That game also puzzled my participating group of young players at the club: they thought that they were playing "zombies" and yet only 1 such creature appeared.

For this game (Game-3), I decided that there wouldn't be any such confusion...

The Scenario

The 4th member of the B-team (Ernie) wasn't involved in the previous debacle as he'd taken the bus home instead of walking.  He's heard about the disaster (maybe Bob used his 1 phone call to tell him about being locked up?) and has decided to walk down to the local police station to try to find out what really happened.  Ernie is accompanied in this by a neighbour, Sid, for moral support.

Ernie and Sid

• Ernie: REP 3, dumbass, golf club
• Sid: REP 3, dim, crossing pole

Ernie and Sid aren't the only people in the vicinity, though.  There's also a young woman (Michelle) who is furious at having received a parking ticket in the post.  She intends to storm into the police station and let the desk officer know just what she thinks of this!

Michelle

•  Michelle: REP 3, slow, high-heeled shoes

Finally, Lucy is a plucky youngster who has heard that nasty things are happening on the streets.  With more boldness than sense, she's filched her daddy's pistol and gone out to try to stop the bad people all on her own.

Lucy

• Lucy: REP 2, B.A. Pistol .  If Lucy fires her huge pistol without bracing it on a wall or other solid object first, or if she fires whilst moving, then she is automatically stunned.  It's her daddy's gun so she will not give it to anyone else!

So we have several groups of citizens wandering about, each with their own agendas.  What could possibly go wrong?!

Unknown to the players, there are only a few cops in the police station as most officers are out dealing with the current civil emergency.  Bob is indeed locked up in one of the station's cells.

No PEFs (possible enemy forces) are used in this game.  Instead, clusters of zombies will appear at random locations along the edges of the table.  The first group of 3d6 zeds enters 2 activations after the players have all had at least 1 move, with further groups of 2d6 zombies arriving 2 and 4 activations after that.  That's 7d6, which if I remember correctly is the number suggested for a suburban encounter with 7 characters (Ernie, Sid, Michelle, Lucy, 2 cops and Bob).

Finally, the encounter rating is '3', so random events will occur on doubles of '3' or less.  I'm using 2 random event decks: my own and Spendlove's.  If an event occurs then I'll draw a card for the effect rather than rolling on the table in the ATZ rulebook.  Events will be drawn alternately from each deck in turn, just to make things unpredictable.

The Game

The First Wave

The first few turns were quiet, as the players waited for their characters to become active.  When this eventually happened, all the civilians moved towards the police station.  Then, with a loud moaning sound, the first herd of 10 zombies appeared.  With exceptional bad luck, the zeds were placed behind the burger bar, beside the red pick-up truck.  The undead creatures immediately shambled towards the nearest humans.

Lucy and Michelle were both in intense danger now, as each had a pack of zombies within 1 move of them.  Arguably, Michelle had more chance of escaping since she was REP 3, but it didn't look good for Lucy at REP 2.  Everything would hang on the next roll of the activation dice!

The dice were rolled: a low double: a random event!  Amazingly, the end wall of the lock-up garages collapsed outwards.

A wall collapse devastates one zombie pack.  I don't have any model rubble, so we had to improvise with concrete blocks!

The falling masonry crushed one zombie to death, while flying bricks knocked down all the rest of the group.  Looks like little Lucy might have a chance to escape after all!  But Michelle is still in trouble...

Another low double was rolled on the next activation test.

This time the event benefited Michelle.  The angry woman walked slowly through the car park, thinking of the best phrases with which to harangue the police.  She was awakened rudely from her reveries by a moaning pack of foul-smelling zombies as they shuffled past her.  Perhaps Michelle's cheap perfume had confused their dulled senses?  Or maybe they'd mistaken her momentarily for another mumbling, lurching undead?  Either way, she was now very aware of her peril!

Official Reaction

Sid and Ernie were arguing with 2 officers who were in the foyer of the police station.  "We've come about my friend, Bob" Sid said.  "You need to let him out; he should never have been arrested.  He's innocent!"
This was met with a stony look from both policemen [Sid took a People challenge against the cops and failed miserably].  Realising that things weren't going his way, Sid changed tack.  "At least, could you tell us whether he's being held here?  Please."

A series of screams were heard from close by the front door.  Both policemen immediately became more alert.

One of the officers ran out of the station doors, just in time to see a young woman racing towards him as fast as her high heels would let her.  She was pursued by a lurching mob of zombies, so the cop didn't hesitate for a moment.  He drew his handgun and started shooting at the group.

Hearing gunfire, his fellow policeman also ran out of the building.  Whilst the first cop attempted to keep the nearest zombies at bay, the second officer spied Lucy toddling round the corner of the garage.  She was pursued by the zombies that had survived the collapsed wall; by now they had picked themselves up and were hunting again.

The officer sprinted over to the terrified little girl.  "Run!" he said.  "Go to the police station; you'll be safe there.  I'll be right behind you".

Lucy ran, passing the first cop as she went through the front doors.  The first cop was barely holding his own against the nearest zombies and there were more on the way...

The Second Wave

Another herd of zombies appeared, though as many again had now been attracted by the gunfire from the policemen.  Although these hadn't got into the action yet, bad things were happening to the humans anyway.

The cop who had assisted Lucy managed to shoot down 3 of the zombies who were following her.  The 4th zombie attacked him on the blind side whilst he concentrated on the penultimate one.  Predictably, this last enemy grappled with the officer and tore his torso open, killing him instantly.

The other policeman was also in real trouble.  He was surrounded by zombies and had been bitten and knocked to the ground.

Even as the last uniformed cop struggled to regain his feet, another officer appeared out of the door.  This was detective Lestrade, who had been asleep in his office upstairs until now [in other words, he was a replacement character for the player who had just lost the other policeman].  The detective had grabbed a shotgun and rushed downstairs; he now aimed at the writing mass of bodies and pulled the trigger.

At close range, the shotgun blast did destroy one of the zombies.  Sadly, most of the force was taken by the uniformed cop as he stood up, cutting him to ribbons.  The zombies started to scrabble around for all the meaty chunks [the only good news about this sorry incident was that the feast would keep the zeds occupied for 6 turns].

Meanwhile, inside the police station everything was confusion.  Initially, the guys were reluctant to leave the lobby in case they were arrested.  However, Ernie soon decided to go looking for the cell block.  Sid was not so sure.  "You can't go through there, Ernie", he said.  "It's restricted."  He didn't like being left behind though, so he trailed behind.

As Sid passed the back door, he heard scrabbling sounds coming from the other side.  "Ernie, wait for me!" he called.  "There's something bad out there, I'm sure I can hear it".  He was right: a few zombies were trying to break in.  These were all individuals who had been attracted by gunfire, including one that was wearing body armour [courtesy of another event card].

Michelle tried to use the phones on the front desk to call for help, but all the lines seemed to be dead.

Lucy toddled along as fast as she could, just trying to put distance between her and the front door.

In the cell block, Ernie discovered 2 prisoners.  Nicky was a small-time crook [replacement for the second player to lose a cop], who immediately called out for rescue.  Bob, Ernie's friend, was in the second cell.

Outside, the weather was turning bad.  The empty store across the road was struck by lightning, though no-one was close enough to suffer any ill effects from this.

More and more zombies gathered outside the station's front doors.  There seemed to be plenty to interest them in the body of the slain cop, so for now all they did was gather together.  Detective Lestrade waited just inside the building, petrified with indecision.

Finally, Lestrade realised that he didn't have any reloads for his gun.  In the heat of the moment, his spare box of ammunition had slipped from his pocket, probably outside near the zombies.  Once he'd fired the shells from the shotgun's magazine then that was it.

All Hell Breaks Loose?

The sky darkened; it was obvious that heavy rain was imminent.

Ernie had already released Nicky from his cell.  The little man didn't show any gratitude at all, but instead started to run for the side exit.  Although the latch on the door gave him some trouble, Ernie finally managed to open Bob's cell as well.

While the B-team were engaged in mutual congratulations, Lucy wandered round the changing room, looking into all the lockers.  She was delighted to find a teddy bear in one of them and hugged the toy close to her chest.  Perhaps it had been a mascot, or a present intended for some policeman's child at the end of his shift?  Either way, it was hers now.

Michelle was the only one in the room who seemed concerned by the threat of zombies.  She started to drag loose items into a barricade behind the door to the lobby.  Unknown to her, Lestrade was on the other side and attempting to enter; he grunted in surprise when the door wouldn't budge.  Michelle screamed out "They're trying to get through the door!  A little help here, please!"  She applied all her strength to the barricade [rolled 3 successes out of 3 in a REP test, while Lestrade failed 4 out of 4] and the door held firmly shut.

Nicky had noticed the side door that led out of the locker room.  He opened it, observed that there were no enemies nearby and fled on his own.  Michelle followed a bit more cautiously.  She waited for Lucy, having noticed that the little girl appeared to be lost.  "Where are your parents, dear?" she asked.  Lucy looked troubled, so Michelle continued "OK, come with me.  We'll find somewhere safe together, won't we?".  The two of them left as fast as they could go.

After them, Ernie, Bob and Sid came out of the police station, just as zombies broke in through the back door and the mob at the front door finished their feast.  The 3 friends also ran into a side street, away from the almost-abandoned building.

Last Man Standing?

What of Lestrade?  After failing to open the door to the changing room, he retreated up the stairs and stood quietly.  He'd hoped to avoid notice, but the zombie mob found him anyway.

Seeing no possibility of defeating the herd, Lestrade backed away up the stairs to the rooftop heliport.  But there was no helicopter coming to rescue him today.

In desperation, he jumped down onto the roof of the office below.  His landing wasn't good and it knocked the wind out of him.  Zombies poured over the edge like an unliving waterfall.  One of them broke its neck as it fell, but others fared much better.

The detective was incredibly lucky to win 2 unanswered activations in a row.  He regained his feet and then jumped towards the ground.  This time his fall was partly broken by a nearby tree and he managed to stay upright.  Several zombies were still close behind him, though...

In an ironic distraction, one of the dead policemen's walkie talkies now crackled into life.  Lestrade couldn't afford the time to find and answer it, though - he was fighting for his life!

Again, Lestrade got a lucky break.  He recovered from the fall before the 3 nearest zombies, levelled his shotgun and fired.  One creature was blown apart at such close range, whilst the other 2 were bowled over.  The man immediately turned and ran as fast as he could, vanishing into the darkness before any more enemies could catch up with him.

Conclusion

Incredibly, the B-team (and indeed the other civilians) accomplished their main mission: survival.  Bob was freed from jail, though I imagine the authorities now have more urgent things to do than look for him.  Lestrade is shaping up to be the hero that he turned out to be later on in my other ATZ campaign [see Quarantine!].  Indeed, the only humans to fail miserably were the 2 uniformed officers.

The players lobbied hard for REP advancement rolls after this game had finished.  While I haven't decided for sure, I'm inclined to deny this.  None of them killed any zombies as required by the rule book.  I don't want to make it too easy for them, after all!

The 2 decks of event cards certainly added a lot of character to the game.  There were times when we were just stunned at the outrageous fortune of some of the players, as unusual things conspired to aid them.  There were one or two "not relevant" events during the game and I haven't bothered to document all of these, but no really bad things occurred.  It could so easily have gone the other way!

[Update => forward to Game-4]

The Workbench, January 2014

Introduction

It's that time of year again when I hope to do a lot of painting during the holiday season.  However, as usual, a combination of family duties and sickness has prevented much progress.  For comparison, this is the state of things one year ago: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-workbench-december-2012.html.  One of these years I will get stuff done over the Christmas and New Year holidays!

So instead of showing you all my output for 2 weeks of effort, here's a record of my untidy workbench...

The Bench

Let's start the tour at the left hand side.  Here we have one of my Christmas presents: a box of figures destined for SAGA.  Most of them are monks, some of whom are armed.  These will form an angry mob, probably for my Scots warband (since they're angry at the Vikings, they cannot be part of that force).  There are also another bard and a mounted Scots warlord in the box.

Further back, but still on the left, is my Barbarian army for Hordes of the Things.  This was last year's Christmas present and I have actually completed 3 bases of it.  Only another 9 or so to go...

Next to that, there is a pile of boxes.  The top box contains a mixture of figures that are waiting to be sealed.  I managed to run out of varnish a day or two into the holiday season, just as all the small hobby retailers shut up shop for 2 weeks!  Still, as soon as the ordered materials arrive, it will only take a few moments to finish off these models.

The next box down in the stack contains another Christmas present.  This is a small squadron of starships that I will use as Tholians in my "not Trek" games.  Tholians were a very minor race in the Star Trek universe, most notable for their unique energy web technology.  I'll need to come up with some appropriate Full Thrust rules for the Tholian Web...

To the front of my painting station is a plank bridge.  My apologies for the quality of the photograph; this didn't come out well and I haven't the energy to re-take it.  The bridge is my first attempt at using coffee stirrers as building materials; I think it'll be quite effective when finished.

The rest of the painting station is the normal jumble of figures in various stages of construction:

• There are a few Dark Age warriors (part of my nascent Anglo Dane SAGA warband) to the front left.
• Several buff-coated cavalrymen and their horses are visible; these will add to my force of Witch Hunters.
• A couple of Dreadball teams are in the clear trays in the centre.
• Most of the other figures are assorted Old West gunslingers & civilians and modern zombies & survivors.

Finally, my West Wind bikers can be seen at the rear right, where they have languished since last year's workbench posting.  Oh, well - maybe I'll finish them this year!