Wednesday, August 3, 2022

92. Blasters & Bulkheads yet again!

I played a second game with my son.  The first is reported here.  This was again a scenario of his devising.  I kind of like him coming up with the ideas.  It makes it fresh for me, good practice for him, and fun for both of us.

As before, the Jedi were the attackers, but it was not a straight grab-the-MacGuffin objective.  Apparently, the Empire has hired a rather evil bounty hunter, in the form of the blue female Twi'lek Leeloo (who, as I created her character, is more of a shooter than purely a bounty hunter, but it really doesn't matter).  She was reportedly worshiping at her evil monster shrine and had just sacrificed a poor, defenseless Rebel trooper to her dark god, when the Good Guys show up (consisting of the Jedi Zar Bee, his Bounty Hunter Fofa Bett and a squad of Rebel troopers).  To protect her, she had two squads of Stormtroopers and her big red friend Murg the Devaronian (a melee specialist).  These are the same characters I've been using for every game so far, but we/I haven't been using the campaign rules yet, so each game is standalone.

Here are some pictures snapped with my phone during the game.  I remembered to take a few more than the previous game.

This is the lay of the table.  The monstrous evil shrine with the sacrifice is at the bottom left, while the Jedi and friends enter from screen right.

The first Stormtrooper squad advances, but doesn't have line of sight to the Rebels.

The Jedi swoops into the middle of the squad and cuts down three of the Stormtroopers!

Over on the left, Murg starts moving closer, and the Stormtroopers...

...are able to pick off a couple of Rebels!  Hooray for the Bad Guys!

Meanwhile, Leeloo used the free time to climb to the top of the nearby bunker, where (she hoped) she could pick off the enemy with her blaster rifle.

Murg and Fofa Bett met in the center of the battlefield.  Their confrontation resulted in a stalemate.  At the top of the picture, Zar Bee edges his way closer, utilizing cover when he can.  The Rebels' shooting has eliminated many more Stormtroopers, too, despite them having good cover.  Dice rolls, man!

Zar Bee runs closer still.  Leeloo does shoot at him, both now and in the previous photo, but he deflects it both times.

An overview of the situation, mid-game.

Zar Bee, instead of heading directly for the bunker with Leeloo in it to capture her, decides to take out the few remaining Stormtroopers, while Murg and Fofa Bett continue to slug it out, ineffectively.  I shouldn't say, "Ineffectively."  They have actually wounded each other, but not enough to K.O. them.

Zar Bee easily dispatches the Stormtroopers, and the 5-man Rebel squad takes position behind Murg.  Murg, wounded and realizing he's in trouble as well as is Leeloo, whom he is supposed to be protecting, withdraws from Melee...

...but it's too late, as Zar Bee Force-jumps to the top of the bunker and confronts Leeloo in person!

Murg runs as fast as he can, taking a hit from Fofa Bett as he leaves...

...but, again, it is too late.  Zar Bee easily K.O.'s Leeloo (many, many Fate dice were rolled to attempt to stop him, but to no avail).

And so, we called the game at that point.  Was it a balanced scenario?  Not really.  Did we have fun?  Yes.  I think the Bad Guys were at a disadvantage by facing a Jedi without having their Sith available.  Although, I really thought Murg, who is usually a murder-machine, would do much better against Fofa Bett, but a series of poor dice rolls on my part, combined with good rolls on my son's part, stymied his chances.  If he had managed to dispatch the Bounty Hunter sooner, Murg might have been able to get to the top of the bunker in time to assist in the melee against Zar Bee.  But alas, I stuck him around too long, hoping he could prevail in his own fight.  As it was, he survived with only one life point remaining, while Fofa Bett had four (out of six)!

Thanks for reading!