Wasteland Raiders - Campaign Summary

This is a summary post for the Wasteland Raiders campaign. With it, you can easily access the five battle reports of the campaign.

Intro - the campaign proposal.

1. Battle in the orchard

2. Wasteland rustlers

3. Military installation

4. Smoke on the water

5. Finale.

Wasteland Raiders: Finale

This is the fifth and last game of the Wasteland Raiders campaign.

The human party currently consists of  Steve [Q3+ C3, Champion, sharpshooter, pistol, SMG], Keith [Q3+ C3, Champion, savage, NBC suit, flamethrower], Marcie [Q3+ C2 Slippery, laser pistol, SMG] and Roland [Q3+ C2 Sharpshooter, assault rifle, sonic grenade], after the massacre in the last game.

The mutant party this time is  Omega [Q4+ C3, leader, energy feeding, sharpshooter, laser pistol], Green [Q4+ C3, fear of fire, savage, defoliant grenade], Hack [Q4+ C3, telekinetic push, HtH specialist, powered sword], Scope [Q4+ C4, superleap, savage, laser pistol] and Shadow [Q4+ C3, telekinetic push, stealth].

The opposing bands.

This time I rolled the artifact hunt scenario. The opposing parties fight each other and may dig for items in piles of rubble. However, there is a risk that the digger gets infested with lethal bugs. To make it worth the risk, I decided that whenever an item is found, it is a grenade. Otherwise, since this is the last game of the campaign, I would find no sense in possibly losing a unit only to find food or energy cells, for instance.

Furthermore, I decided the following rules for the mutants:
1. The mutant leader never digs for artifacts.
2. If the mutants have already found an artifact or lost a unit to the bugs, they will no longer dig for artifacts.
3. Otherwise, when a mutant activates, he will prefer moving towards an unexplored pile of rubble, keeping behind cover when possible, except if already engaged in combat with enemies or within 1 medium distance (enough to fire most weapons or charge) of them.

Board setup

The strategy for the mutant party was to spread around the board, with Omega and Scope shooting even from a distance due to their high combat scores, while Hack would try to engage the humans with lower combat score and use the melee attack + telekinetic push combo to land two attacks in a single turn. Green would keep away from Keith and try to use the grenade at any spot with two or more enemies and Shadow would generally keep away.

My own strategy was to shoot the mutants also using the longer-ranged firearms and to try to chase Green with Keith if possible, to get an easy kill or morale failure.

Wasteland Raiders: Smoke on the Water

This is the fourth battle in the Wasteland Raiders campaign.

The human party currently consists of Steve [Q3+ C3, Champion, sharpshooter, pistol, SMG], Keith [Q3+ C3, Champion, savage, NBC suit, flamethrower], Alex [Q3+ C2, HtH Specialist, frenzy drug, poison antidote, shotgun] and Wanda [Q3+ C2, Savage, laser pistol]. They have 12 food points and 2 energy cells (after consuming last week's upkeep.)

The mutant party this time was: Maniac [Q4+ C3 Danger sense, psychometry, photon grenade], Kobra [Q3+ C3 Leader, slippery, superior touch, electrical gun], Hawk [Q4+ C4 Champion, flying, hero, laser rifle], Kreep [Q4+ C3 Forester, phobia (humans), shotgun], and Backup [Q4+ C3 Doppelganger, steadfast, pistol]

The opposing forces. The mutant combo of a flying hero and a doppleganger made a tough team.

 I rolled for the next scenario on the campaign: Smoke on the Water. This is a meeting engagement where the opposing forces fight for a well or body of clean water. In this case, based on the props I had, it was an old water pumping station. Since one of the mutants had the Forester skill, I used a number of forest patches as obstacles (they slow movement and block line of sight across them.)

The strategy for the humans was to have Steve, Keith and Wanda spread and fire their weapons from a distance. Alex would act as a backup for Wanda, since she would be more exposed. The mutants would move in three groups: Kobra and Maniac advancing on the left, Kreep trying to launch an ambush from the forest on the right and Hawk and Backup (copying Hawk's abilities) would fly around, trying to find targets.

Game setup

In the first few turns both forces maneuvered to find a good spot in cover. The mutants were plagued with bad rolls and yet Kreep managed to get in position and fire at Alex, knocking him down with an aimed shot.

Military Installation

After quite a bit of time, here is the third game for the Wasteland Raiders campaign that I started in January. The next scenario is the Military Installation.

The human party currently consists of Steve [Q3+ C2, Sharpshooter, 1 frag grenade, pistol], the only survivor from the starting group, Keith [Q3+ C3, Champion, Savage, NBC suit, flamethrower], Rhonda [Q3+ C2, Sharpshooter, shotgun, javelins], and Alex [Q3+ C2, HtH Specialist, frenzy drug, poison antidote]. They have 16 food points (after consuming last week's upkeep.)

The roll of the dice created a really scary mutationist party this time. Meet Radiak [Q4+ C3, leader, slippery, tough, death ray gun (2 cells)], Speed [Q4+ C3, fear of water, sprint, stealth, frag grenade], Talon [Q4+ C3, allure, poison, slippery], Mask [Q4+ C4, sharpshooter, telekinetic disarm, telekinetic push, SMG], and Dragon [Q4+ C3, energy projection (electrical), slippery].

In this scenario, enemy forces meet in the ruins of a military base. Their main goal is to kill or drive the enemies off the board. However, they also have the opportunity of searching for weapons in the ruins. The bad news is that the ruins may also hide autonomous defense systems...

Wasteland Rustlers

Only Steve [Q3+ C2, Sharpshooter, 1 frag grenade, 1 pistol] survived the first mission in the Wasteland Raiders campaign. Now it is time for the second mission.

Steve returned to King Harlan's settlement and joined another raiding team: Keith [Q3+ C2, Savage, NBC Suit, Flamethrower], Rhonda [Q3+ C2, Sharpshooter, Javelins], and Alex [Q3+ C2, HtH Specialist, Frenzy drug, Poison antidote].

The new mutationist party is: Pan [Q4+ C3, Allure, Steadfast, Herbicide], Ogre [Q5+ C3, Two-headed, Energy adaptation, Javelins], Demon [Q3+ C3, Leader, Flying, Danger sense, Sharpshooter, Shotgun], Cobra [Q4+ C4, Poison, Stealth], and Mick [Q4+ C3, Psychometry, Stealth, Photon grenade].

Battle in the Orchard

Here we are for Week 1 of the Wasteland Raiders campaign. For the first game I rolled the "Battle in the Orchard" scenario.

The wasteland raiders are scouting mutant territory when they find a patch of healthy trees full of fruit. The bad news: some mutants are guarding the area, leading to a battle.

The mutant party consists of Mask [Q4+ C3, mind block, hero, radiation antidote], Goro [Q3+ C3 leader, fear of fire, hth specialist, powered sword], Patch [Q4+ C3 telekinetic shield, sniper, crossbow], Snake [Q4+ C3 energy adaptation, sharpshooter] and Lizzard [Q4+ C4 clinging, ambusher, savage, herbicide].

Here is a picture of the setup. Green circles are trees, green patches are bushes that block line of sight but do not hamper movement significantly. The raiders split into two pairs, while the mutants occupied the center of the table. Note that Lizzard starts concealed in a bush. This is a simple battle, in which the goal is to defeat the other warband by killing them or making them flee. [Note: on the following paragraphs, what I called a "turn" is actually a pair of turns, taken by each warband.]

Post-apocalyptic party

Last week this blog completed four years of existence (and I will save you from comments about how time flies...) Since the first post was a battle report of a Mutants and Death Ray Guns game, and it has been some time since I played it, I decided to start a small campaign. This time I will be using the revised edition, released last year. Although it now officially incorporates a points system, I will stick to the randomized unit creation.

My warband is a "purity squad," being comprised only of humans. They get one less figure than other warbands but have better odds of getting good skills, and start with more equipment.

Instead of drawing the figures, this time I used some 15mm ones that I already had, trying to match them to the rolled characters.

From left to right, they are: Jennifer [Q3+ C2, Slippery, 1 pistol, 1 defoliant grenade], Claude [Q3+ C3, Savage, 1 powered sword, 1 psionicilline], Kate [Q3+ C2, HtH Specialist, javelins], Steve [Q3+ C2, Sharpshooter, 1 frag grenade, 1 pistol]. The band also has 9 food points and 11 energy cells.

The setting
This group is one of the raiding teams of a human settlement ruled by "King" Harlan. Raiding teams venture into the radioactive wasteland, fighting mutants to secure valuable resources. Successful teams gain fame in the settlement and favor with the king, so that is their main motivation.

Besides that, each of the characters has their own motivation. Jennifer is crazy for ancient artifacts and will do anything to secure them. Claude hates mutants and finds it difficult to focus on a mission if he has not defeated at least one yet. Kate believes she could be a good leader for the team. For this reason, she will often try to lead them into battle. Steve is (secretly) in love with Kate, so he will try to show off and protect her.

Campaign rules

I will use the campaign rules as presented in the rule book, but the opposition will be a randomly rolled mutant warband for each scenario. The group will have to face five different, randomly rolled scenarios, at a rate of one per week in game time, for upkeep purposes. Campaign victory requires three scenario wins and at least one of the original characters (Jennifer, Claude, Kate or Steve) survives the five games.