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.



Battle report
At the start of the battle, Roland rushed forward and fired an aimed shot at Omega. Surprised by the distant shot, the mutant dropped to the ground. Unfortunately, Roland's rifle broke down during the attack.

Surprise!

Not long after that, Keith crossed the battlefield to attack Green. He missed but the flames were enough to send the mutant running [the attack caused a failed morale check].

Steve gave his pistol to Roland, keeping his SMG. While Roland kept behind the tree, he fired an aimed shot at Scope, who had taken cover behind some ruins. The mutant fell dead.

Surprise again!

Marcie searched one of the rubble piles and found a photon grenade [and luckily, she was not infested by the mutant bugs]. Then Omega fired an aimed shot at her, causing her to seek cover. Unfortunately for the mutant, his laser pistol malfunctioned after this.

Finish him!

Taking advantage of the situation, Roland fired another aimed shot at Omega (this time with the pistol given by Steve), knocking down the mutant leader. Not much later, Roland moved out of cover and killed Omega, causing panic among the mutants [the loss of a leader and more than 50% of their forces caused multiple morale checks that made the other mutants flee]. A flawless victory for the humans!

Conclusion
The humans win the campaign, with three victories out of five games. Steve, the only survivor from the original human band, becomes a permanent band leader in the settlement of "King" Harlan. Although they have secured some important territories, many mutant bands are still roaming, especially around the old water pumping station.

In this battle the mutants had terrible activation rolls, often unable to activate more than one unit. This allowed the humans to move forward and fire without much resistance. Still, this was another fun game, played in about one hour.