Fortune Squadron 2 - Operation Rapid Mazarin 02 - "The Long Patrol"

Previous Mission: Assault on Riccorluvio

Mission 2

No doubt prickly from Ingvar's criticisms, Captain Levi Keller made sure that Lunar Lance (Nora Davies, Ceredig Clough, and Fatimah al-Hassan) were vested with very accurate information before their mission.

In WeaselTech each Operation comes with its own "complication"; for Rapid Mazarin, I rolled that any pilots involved in Mission 1 would be unavailable for the next two. Which meant that Lunar Lance would have back-to-back missions to run.

 

Lunar Lance was being deployed to the outlying regions of the city of Montorano; their aim was simple and disruptive search-and-destroy. And their first target was an industrial town. Sectors 2 and 4 were designated to be be cleared of any belligerents, while HQ wanted information about possible friendly insurgents in Sector 1.

Thanks to Captain Keller's intel, Fortune Squadron knew ahead of time that Sector 1 and 4 would be protected by two enemy Blips on patrol, while Sector 2 was guarded by a single stationary Blip.

The trio from Fortune Squadron would drop into Sector 3 with cover.

Left to right:

• Honeymoon Phase, a B-1 "Phoenix Hawk" mounted with a PL-a beam, piloted by "Fortune-4" Nora Davies
• Grim Herculean Task, an X-1 "Rifleman" mounted with AC-3 and MG-5 autocannons, piloted by "Fortune-5" Ceredig Clough
• A Mother Knows, a B-1 "Jenner" mounted with RPG-5 missile racks, piloted by "Fortune-6" Fatimah al-Hassan

A Mother Knows and Grim Herculean Task immediately headed north towards the town; Fatimah al-Hassan drew two swarms of "Sparrow"-class mechs towards her, putting them directly in Ceredig Clough's gunline. Grim Herculean Task's autocannons tore through most of the first swarm of Sparrows.

The Sparrows were armed with rocket pods-- a major boon for Fortune Squadron, as each of their mechs mounted ECM Suites to help coordinate missile-intercept fire. Despite the volume of incoming rockets, neither A Mother Knows or Grim Herculean Task took more than nominal damage.

On her own, heading towards Sector 4, Nora Davies found herself in less ideal circumstances; Honeymoon Phase was interdicted by a "Mamba"-class Elite and a trio of Sparrows. Despite her ECM Suite helping shoot down the Sparrows' rockets, Honeymoon Phase took a solid hit from the Elite Mamba's beam battery.

Nora Davies hurled her mech into desperate evasive maneuvers-- though they saved her life, the Elite Mamba's beams still tore into Honeymoon Phase and punched through the last of its armor. Nora found herself without her jump-jets, still in sight of the relatively unscathed Elite Mamba.

Thankfully, Grim Herculean Task had broken off from Sector 1 with admirable speed-- his AC-3 fire slammed into the Mamba, drawing off its attention for the moment.

The desperate circumstances were not abated when Honeymoon Phase's magscan confirmed a sizable host of Sparrows just north of Sector 4's objective.

Unwelcome though the enemies were, they were also closely clustered together; a prime target for a strafing run from Fortune Squadron's air support.

Even as one swarm of Sparrows evaporated under a plume of dropped ordinance, Honeymoon Phase slipped north. Their PL-a beam scythed through a second swarm with the ease of a hot knife through butter.

Grim Herculean Task, having drawn the Elite Mamba's attention, now slugged it out with the enemy. Streams of depleted slugs flew one way, flashes of azure lightening the other. Both took as much as they gave; but while Grim Herculean Task's armor ran like melted wax, it was as quickly repaired by an emergency drop of armor-repair drones. The Elite Mamba began to fall apart under the steady stream of MG-5 fire.

Ceredig's magscans revealed an unwelcome truth, however. Another Elite--an "Adder"-class mech--was quickly approaching.

In what was quickly becoming a pattern, Honeymoon Phase's magscans revealed yet another swarm of enemies-- four squads of battle armor protecting the landing pad in Sector 2. The beleaguered Honeymoon Phase was too focused on avoiding volleys of rockets to snap off more than a nominal shot to the north.

Even after putting the Elite Mamba down, Ceredig Clough was faced with an unenviable choice. The armor-repair drones had kept Grim Herculean Task operational, but only just, and the Elite Adder bearing down on him was at full strength. If he withdrew, he'd cede Sector 4's objective back to the OpFor. If he didn't, he risked being torn apart.

Ceredig Clough decided that his obligations to Fortune Squadron, to the mission and the cause, were more important than his safety.

Grim Herculean Task dumped its entire MG-5 ammo bin into the Elite Adder; the barrel of the weapon warped and locked up, becoming unusable for the remainder of the mission.

The Elite Adder came apart under the furious and Grim Herculean Task stood battered but defiant.

The mission's end was somewhat anti-climactic. A Mother Knows, having secured the town in Sector 1 with commendable ease, swept in to support Honeymoon Phase; between their weaponry and another air strike, Sector 2 was cleared of OpFor.

Lunar Lance formed up for extraction.

Aftermath & Social Scenes

Nora Davies and Fatimah al-Hassan both advanced to Level 1 after the mission, while Ceredig Clough's stellar performance vaunted him to Level 3. Further, his bravery in the face of stern odds saw him receive a commendation in the form of the Distinguished Service Star.

On base, Ingvar's sulking in the mech bay saw a chance encounter with Master Chief Sarah Butler. The eccentric technician chattered at length about her interests and hobbies-- in particular horticulture and how it (apparently) resembled mechanical engineering. t was her intention to submit some of her own cultivations in a local competition in order to prove, among other things, that 'tulips are the tri-catalyzed fusion chambers of the flower world'.

At a local park, Dr. Florian Blucher chanced on Fatimah al-Hassan in the middle of her mid-day prayers. Fatimah felt that the doctors lingering and unwelcome observation--treating her religiosity as a quaint curio--was disrespectful. Dr. Blucher blithely disagreed, and the two parted ways as Rivals.

Eftichios Tolotis met Dr. Adriana Kemp at a restaurant to discuss their upcoming check-up. It was a dry and formal meeting with none of the drama happening elsewhere.

And that's it for Turn 2!

Stay tuned for Mission 3, which will conclude Operation Rapid Mazarin!

Fortune Squadron 1 - Operation Rapid Mazarin 01 - "Assault on Riccorluvio"

 Operation "Rapid Mazarin"

The 13th Havenite Volunteers had been deployed to the embattled Eparchy of Velania, to the "Faithian Corridor". This swath of territory was tenuously in control of local insurgents-- the "Free Faithian Legion" which had been violently resisting the Prime Ascendency for years.

The operation called for the 13th Havenite Volunteers and 23rd Margravite Guard to expand the Faithian corridor; combined operations were aimed at the cities of Campi and Monagosco to the south, and Foialattilet and Jenti to the north.

Additionally, part of the operation's aspirations were to drive a wedge between the 6th and 8th Riofria Regiments.

To that end, Fortune Squadron had been dispatched for special operations.

"Solar Lance" --Ingvar Ragnarsson, Farquhar Ascenso, and Eftichios Tolotis--were to drop on Riccorluvio, aiming to disrupt the mech repair facilities there.

"Lunar Lance"--Nora Davies, Ceredig Clough, and Fatimah al-Hassan--were going to deploy closer to friendly lines, harassing the enemy held city of Montorano.

Mission 1

This mission was being made on "sketchy intel", which in WeaselTech impacts deployment. The better your intel, the better/more forgiving your deployment. I would be facing four initial "Blips", which represent enemy contact. In WeaselTech, you have to reveal enemies which may range from a gaggle of mooks to an ace pilot with a grudge to bear.

Solar Lance would be dropped into Sector 3, with three objectives. To the north-west (Sector 1) was an administrative building and to the south-east (Sector 4) a religious center, both of which were to be cleared/captured. To the north-east (Sector 2), the mech repair facilities which needed to be destroyed.

Left to right:

• Kell of Kells, an X-1 "Archer" mounted with MRL-4 and RPG-5 missile launchers, piloted by "Fortune-2" Farquhar Ascenso
• Hobson's Choice, an X-1 "Nieru-C" mounted with PL-a and PL-b beam cannons, piloted by "Fortune-1" Ingvar Ragnarsson
• The Human Condition, a B-1 "Shadow Hawk" mounted with an AC-3 autocannon, piloted by "Fortune-3" Eftichios Tolotis

Solar Lance dropped right on top of a patrol of four "Macaw"-class mechs, who barely had time to react before a flurry of missiles and an azure beam turned their frames into wreckage.

Kell of Kells provided overwatch as Human Condition made a beeline for Sector 1's objective; a prudent choice, as it turned out to be protected by an Elite pilot in a "Python"-class mech. Though Farquhar's missiles stripped the Elite Python of armor, Eftichios was unable to finish the enemy off with his autocannon.

Hobson's Choice squared off against a second patrol of Macaws, which proved as unwise the second time as during the landing. The brilliant flash of the PL-a beam vaporized myomer-fiber and ablative armor alike.

Eftichios' attempts to kill the Elite Python were further hampered by a new swarm of Macaws-- though the plucky pilot was able to avoid the worst of their incoming fire, his own AC-3 salvoes were also spoiled.

Not to be denied, Eftichios eventually outpaced the Macaws and cornered the Elite Python near Sector 1's objective. A trio of depleted slugs tore through what precious little armor remained on the mech, and a plume of reactor-flames signaled the enemy's end.

In Sector 4, Ingvar had little opposition securing the religious center-- even managing to extract a religious icon for return to the Faithian revolutionaries.

Similarly, Farquhar's advance on Sector 2 and the important mech bay were only nominally contested.

 By the time Farquhar emptied his missile racks into the mech bay, Eftichios had secured Sector 1's objective and skirmished the pursuing Macaws to exhaustion.

With all objectives complete--and little OpFor remaining--Solar Lance was able to exfiltrate without complication.

Aftermath & Social Scenes

In the wake of the mission Ingvar and Farquhar would advance to Level 1, while Eftichios would advance to Level 2.

The first two Social Scenes (the part of the game in which you explore the melodrama of these pilots and command staff) both occurred at a concert; I imagine some celebration being held back in Fortune Squadron's home base of Fonza.

Ingvar Ragnarsson--an impetuous and ill-tempered young man--got into a spat with the Intelligence Officer, Captain Levi Keller. Undoubtedly, Ingvar felt that their job had been made more difficult due to some deficiency in pre-op intelligence analysis. The two would become Rivals.

Farquhar Ascenso, seeing an opportunity to ruin his own rival's reputation, attempted to badmouth Ingvar to Fortune Squadron's commanding officer-- Major Ragnar Magnusson. He might have made a better decision had he recognized the patrynomic surnames, and realized that the Major was in fact Ingvar's father. The two would become Rivals.

Not everything was hot-blooded drama, however. The young and optimistic Ceredig Clough invited both Eftichios Tolotis and Nora Davies to meet up at a bar, with the aim of resolving their differences. Ceredig's relentless desire to find common ground (and at least two bottles of Fanza Reserve) would eventually settle the matter. Eftichios and Nora were persuaded to put their rivalry to an end.

And that's that for Turn 1! I'm already finding this game to have a lot more moving parts than 5 Parsecs; from the movement and revealing of Blips, the impact of staff officers during and after missions, the social system. But it's all a lot of fun and I can't think of any part which is particularly onerous.

Mission 2: The Long Patrol

Fortune Squadron 0 - Setting Up The Campaign

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to start up a solo campaign of Nordic Weasel Games' WeaselTech. I'm doing this for two reasons:

1. I have largely replaced my gastrointestinal functions with the purchasing and painting of miniature mechs; they sustain me, body and soul, in a way mere food cannot.
2. Global fucking pandemic. I am so tired.

The first step is contextualizing the campaign. With a lot of Nordic Weasel games, the context is very nearly presumptive; in Gang Warfare you are a gang engaging in warfare, in Salvage Crew you are a crew of salvagers, you get the idea.

But the devil is always in the details.

For this campaign I'm borrowing liberally from a Lancer mini-campaign I ran; that Lancer is also deeply invested in mechs and inspired by some anime means it shouldn't be hard to smush them together.

Welcome to Golgos Prime

(This unnecessary amount of detail to contextualize shoveling resin miniatures at one another is brought to you by Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator)

Some time ago, the Golgos World Administration--a global administrative organization which originally united the planet's various work syndicates and mining collectives--met a slow and unseemly end. A rising tide of anthrochauvinism (take the worst tenets and practices of nationalism, writ large on the galactic scale) would eventually see an internal coup. The GWA was dissolved.

In its place, the Prime Ascendency asserted planetary control. Because all tyranny breeds its own end, the Ascendency's violent push for global hegemony eventually blossomed on one of the continents in the form of the Free Golgos Confederation. Local militias and revolutionaries managed to pool their efforts, along with a sizable defection of Ascendency military.

I'll probably write more about the planet and its history of problems, but that certainly seems enough for now.

WeaselTech helpfully includes some random tables for broad context; I rolled "an uprising against an oppressive power or regime" and "located at a military instillation on the frontiers". That meant to me that this campaign would not take place in the front lines of contested territory (the diagonally-hatched zones on the above map) but in one of the brushfire revolts on the Ascendency's mainland (the red zones).

For the flavor of the squadron, I rolled "volunteers eager to do their part" which actually didn't initially point me anywhere. But I did notice one of the red zones snaking towards the heart of the Prime Ascendency-- towards the planetary capital of Golgos Prime, High Haven.

That led me to the "13th Havenite Volunteers"; a regiment of mech-pilots drawn exclusively from those who had either defected or been driven from High Haven. Young recruits--maybe from High Haven's war college--eager to test their mettle against the anthrochauvinists.

Meet "Fortune Squadron"

Now WeaselTech includes, as I mentioned, a whole sub-system for the soap opera melodrama of young pilots butting heads; I wanted Fortune Squadron to be particularly involved with one another from the outset. The dice were happy to oblige.

Ingvar Ragnarsson and Farquhar Ascenso were Rivals, as were Eftichios Tolotis and Nora Davies. The outliers were Ceredig Clough and Fatimah al-Hassan, who ended up as Friends. I liked the idea that they were the youngest and oldest pilots in the squadron-- not having been in the same war college class, they had very little friction with their fellows.

The pilot tokens were made using RetroGrade Minis, which I've leaned on heavily for my Lancer RPG campaign. I cannot stress enough how useful and thorough the digital support for Lancer is-- from its free rulebook, active Discord, and excellent liveplays to the Comp/Con character generator/character sheet and RetroGrade's Lancer-oriented pixel tokens.

Mission 1: Assault on Riccorluvio

WeaselTech - All Systems Radical, Dude

 Occam's Laser

If you're exceedingly clever and/or can read, you may remember the campaign log I was keeping of a Star Wars Solo Wargame using Nordic Weasel's "Five Parsecs From Home". I do intend to get back to that sometime! But I am a man ("man", really) of varied and sundry tastes. I'm the hedonism-bot of gaming; novelty, inventiveness, new things please! This is, I am certain, entirely unconnected to my ADHD.

I apologize for nothing

Anyway-- continuing the trend of this veering dangerously close to a Nordic Weasel Fanboy Blog, I am going to leap right into Ivan's newest product. WeaselTech!

Apparently the poor man has been hounded for a mech game about as long as Mitch McConnel has been hounded by the Collections Department of Hell. But unlike Lucifer the Prince of Darkness, Ivan's fans look to finally be getting what they wanted!

In any case, I have been somewhat bitten by the mech bug lately and hopefully Ivan has just given me a particularly robust and long-armed scratcher with which to itch.

Glancing At The Weasel

I'll start with a quick run-through of the rules; not a proper review (which may come later, once I've gotten some hands-on experience with the system). This is just to get some context for the later AARs.

The game makes no bones about its influences; Macross, RoboTech, and a host of other Large Big Robot Battle Pow Pow anime with which I'm personally unfamiliar. This has two notable impacts on how the game plays:

1. Rather than the plodding land-battleships of BattleTech, these are the fast-and-furious laser-belching type of mech.

2. There is an entire sub-system for tracking the rivalries and romantic entanglements of your mech pilots.

The broad structure of play is mostly recognizable if you've played a Nordic Weasel game before (most especially the 5 X from the X series); you have a wargaming-scenario which impacts a downtime procedure which itself wraps back into a wargaming-scenario. Where WeaselTech departs from the formula is in the downtime procedure more than the wargaming-scenario.

Each wargaming-scenario is a "Mission" and three Missions constitutes an "Operation". The downtime is then split between stuff you do between Missions (gain XP, roll for commendations, see who has gotten in a love triangle) and stuff you do between Operations (research new equipment, check on the status of the overall conflict, roll for promotions).

That might sound like a lot of homework, but let's not pretend that you've got something better to do. You're playing a solo-wargame! Somewhere my high school bully's hackles are up; they do not know why, but they know in their bones they have to shove someone in a locker. Even most normal wargames marinate in loneliness and math, why would this be any different? Don't act like you're better than me. You're not better than me! I'm not crying you're crying! Loser! You're the loser not me--

I'm okay I'm fine I'm okay

Sorry, lost the thread there a little.

Taken altogether, my impression is very much that WeaselTech is deservedly distinct from the 5 X from the X series-- though it is also solo-oriented and campaign focus, both the scenario-wargaming mechanisms and procedural structure give it a very different texture.

Keep your eyes peeled as I set up for a solo campaign of my own using this system!

I'm out.

Mynock Alley 2 - March of the Murder Militia

 Campaign Turn 2

Kenthe and Kyra Train, getting +1 XP. This nets Kenthe an Advance; his movement goes from 4.5 to 5 (as a dedicated brawler, a faster movement seems prudent).

Terpfen, Adric, and Mister No all Collect Revenue. Having shown their general chops in the last campaign turn, people pony up a full 3 Credits.

Reelo heads out to Prowl, and proves that last turn's un-wisdom is not an isolated incident. This time he is laid up by a binge of chemical boosters. While this takes him out for a full campaign turn, it also nets him +0.5 Toughness.

Kenthe is the subject of the random Character Event this turn, getting +0.5 Reactions; this makes sense with his Advance, and I think that it indicates him returning home for a training stint with his "parents". The Unifiers are halfway between an order of monks and a cult, raising their children communally and training relentlessly to be "Force Warriors" (regardless of any actual Force Sensitivity).

In the wake of last turn's weapons embargo, the up-and-coming Scarlet Syndicate make a deal with an arm's smuggler this turn thanks to the Campaign Event. Many in Mynock Alley recognize that the Syndicate might be extorting them for money-- but they're also going toe-to-toe with Imperial bootlickers. This far into the sub-levels, the Empire isn't precisely in as much control as they claim. Gangs like the Blackband and other neo-Imperial militias are instrumental in keeping the populations here under the Empire's thumb. In any case, Kyra gets a shiny new Gorevetti I-95 "Scrap" blaster pistol and ditches the underwhelming Zip-13 snub-nose.

Unfortunately for the Syndicate, their all-gas-no-brakes approach to things continues to create its own opposition. The Background Event indicates that gang tensions are on the rise-- the Blackband, the Mynock-Eaters, and even the Glitterguts Swoop Gang are all recruiting muscle. When and if things pop off against them, the Syndicate will face greater numbers.

This turn, however, is contextualized by two things: the opposition rolled are "Militia" and the battlefield condition is "bitter struggle" (giving the opposition a Morale bonus). The Empire is outsourcing its gang-control problems. Still no Enemies yet, so this represents an Opportunity Encounter.

March of the Murder-Militia

"We should chat sometime." Adric said, sliding up next to Mister No at the bar. They were in the Repulsar Failure, a dive-bar south-and-down from Scarlet Heights. It wasn't officially their territory, but no one was willing to contest them-- and besides, it wasn't particularly fertile territory anyway. That made it a decent place to blow off steam.

"We're not chatting?" Mister No asked, with feigned innocence.

"Not yet." Adric said, with some edge. His nickname was All-Smiles and most days he lived up to the gregarious reputation; he didn't enjoy playing tough. Especially not with the boss.

"Then let's chat." Mister No said, dropping into the same kind of tone. His eyes were hard on Adric, who nearly flinched.

"Terpfen is maybe the only other person in the outfit who can see what you're doing," Adric pressed, "And he's too loyal to say anything about it."

"And you're just disloyal enough to mouth off, huh."

"You named me second. That means it's my job to be a little disloyal." Adric said, slamming back his drink and turning to face Mister No fully, "We're making money, but I'm starting to think you want to get political, boss--"

"Imps!" came a cry from outside the bar, and the denizens of the Repulsar Failure broke into panicked movement. "It's a sweep!"

"The armor's Imperial, but they're wearing it wrong." called Terpfen, peering out the window as patrons flooded out the exits. The rest of the Syndicate--barring Reelo, who was sleeping off some Booster Blue back at the Heights--checked their weapons. "Militia. They're not here to arrest-- they're here to disappear folk."

"You think I wanna get political?" Mister No said aside to Adric, who grimaced, "They're not giving me much of a choice here."

March of the Murder Militia

At Mister No's direction, Terpfen took to the bar's rooftop with his blaster rifle-- being one of the better shots in the outfit.

Adric and Kenthe, exited the front while Mister No and Kyra exited the back.

The militia was spread out. Two squads converged from east and west, while their leader took to an overpass to coordinate.

Adric and Kenthe wasted no time, sprinting for the cover of some industrial bric-a-brac. Kenthe crouched down at the corner, hazarding a peak to the east; Adric took up overwatch to the west, sighting down the battered blaster-carbine he used.

Adric was not kept waiting. The two milita moved up with some practiced ease, one member breaking into a sprint as the other lay down suppressing fire from cover. Adric let off an ineffectual squeeze of the firing-stud before flopping back to the safety of his own cover.

To the east, the militia squad had greater cover and only a single target-- the Mon Cal Terpfen. Their blasterfire briefly kept Terpfen behind his cover as they advanced.

But not for long. Terpfen had been drummed out of military service on his home-planet due to insubordination. He'd come to the Syndicate a vagrant, addicted to spice and self-loathing. But in the Syndicate, he'd found something of a sense of loyalty that ran both ways-- and Mister No had found a use for Terpfen's training.

The Mon Cal popped up from cover long enough to put a blaster-bolt through the eye of one of the advancing militia, then dropped back down.

The militia leader had been watching the back of the Repulsar Failure, and as Mister No and Kyra exited the establishment he opened up with his blaster. The two gangsters scattered-- Kyra to the scant cover of a ladder, and Mister No to the northwest corner of the Repulsar Failure.

It was all Kyra could do to stay out of the militia leader's fire, but Mister No managed several shots on the move that caused the militia leader to briefly relent.

Adric fell back towards Kenthe, unwilling to test the mettle of the two militia advancing on him. His parting shots were wild and useless.

"How's it look?" he said, sliding into cover next to Kenthe.

"Terpfen got one. Can't see the other-- he's keeping his head down."

"Head down is good." Adric grunted, peaking back towards his previous position. The militia hadn't advanced.

Mister No's return fire had given himself and Kyra breathing room, but only a little. The militia leader still held a very good, defensible position. They couldn't move up on him without getting caught in the open.

Thankfully, Terpfen was on a more level playing field. The militia leader tried to pan his blasterfire towards the Mon Cal's sniper-nest, but wasn't quick enough.

A single scarlet bolt took him in the chest, sending him staggering back. He collapsed with maudlin speed.

"Boss, that's not even real stormtrooper armor." Terpfen grunted over the comms.

Adric's puzzlement that the militia had not advanced to his former cover turned to an icy fear.

"Boss, behind you!"

In ducking around the corner of the Repulsar Failure, Mister No had presented his back to the militia-- who reacted with a preparatory clarity.

Blaster bolts rimed Mister No from two angles-- but Adric's barked warning had served its purpose. Mister No's overcoat had several new holes in it, but one of the militia had been dropped.

Adric hurled himself west, leaving Kenthe to keep tabs on the remaining militia. He rounded the industrial crate without heed of cover, pulsing fire at the militia he found there. Blindsided by the aggressive move, the man tried to fall back-- then fell down, helped by a blasterbolt to the throat.

"All clear, here." Terpfen said in his usual, unconcerned drawl.

"Good." Mister No said, slumping against the nearest wall as the adrenaline caught up with him. "Who has the fifth?"

"He's still behind cover." Kenthe answered on the comlink. He bounced his stun-baton with anxious energy. "I-- actually I think he might've run off. Hold on."

"Wait for one of us." Adric started, jogging towards Kenthe's position, "No use risking--"

There was a muted explosive thump, and Kenthe screamed.

The Aftermath

The final militia fled the battle, but in rolling post-game loot Kenthe ended up getting injured. I wrapped it into the fiction by supposing the militia rigged up a small trap on his way out, which the young ascetic fell for. He survived, but unfortunately will miss the next three fights and reduces his Reaction down to 1. Not great.

Still, it is mostly good news for the rest of the crew.

The Syndicate earns 5 Credits (3 from "notable objects" on the battlefield, +1 for a Benefactor, and +1 for it being an Opportunity Encounter). The gang's Stash was at the point where I could start thinking about trying to get them better gear.

Adric, Kyra, and Mister No all received 3xp ("survived and held the field"). This nets Kyra an Advance, bumping her Reaction from 1.5 to 2.

Kenthe earned 4xp ("survived and held the field", and "became a casualty").

Terpfen, meanwhile, had scored a solid 5xp from his performance ("survived and held the field", "first to inflict a casualty", and "inflict a casualty on the enemy leader"). He earns an Advance, bumping his Speed to 5.

All in all, this was a very quick scenario thanks to my garbage rolls; the militia solidly had the drop on Mister No twice, and both times failed to capitalize. We'll see if his luck is better in the future.

The Joy of Solo Gaming

"Solitude is fine but you need someone to tell that solitude is fine."

Honoré de Balzac

Let me establish my pedigree on the topic of playing games by myself; it is a legacy handed to me from my very own father.

My father had the kind of childhood that would inspire jealously in any well-adjusted aspiring comedian. It's often best when hearing about this kind of childhood to breathlessly say 'ha ha what' in a careful neutral tone. That said, it's not really my story to tell. 

(Except, okay, just this one bit: when my father was in military school they would have snowball fights except instead of snowballs they used rocks and there wasn't any snow.)

But also, it's the kind of childhood that left him with a lot of free time on his hands and not always a surfeit of friends with which to take advantage of that free time. 

(My father once wistfully reminisced to me about how he'd play football behind his parents' property. If you ran hard enough and recklessly enough, clipping off a tree was very much like being tackled by someone)

I don't know if I'd have had the creativity to figure out how get beat up by trees rather than people. But then my father is an intelligent and successful man with his own business and (presumably, by now) friends, while I have this blog so what the fuck do I know.

It didn't stop there, though. In Avalon Hill's World War 2 boardgames--Jutland & PanzerBlitz, among others--my father found a way for dead trees to also brutalize him.

This is the lineage from which I descend, this is the inheritance I have been given. Some nights I wake up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding as I try to squash the urge to hurl myself face-first into a nearby oak.

 The sins of the father shall be visited on the son

Joking aside, playing games by yourself need not be as weird as it sounds off-hand. Especially with a heady, intellectualized boardgame the central appeal may exist regardless of an opponent. The puzzle may yet remain; your opponent then is yourself, or your own expectations. In a historical wargame, it might be the historical result-- there are few joys as sweet to a grognard as the smug satisfaction of outperforming Napoleon from the comforting dimness of your basement or garage.

I think we often think of authorship as two ships passing in the night. The game's author disappears, and the player's authorship begins. In RPGs, people talk at length about their stories at the table. They talk about the collaboration necessary to create those stories with other players. And yet, the game itself is there. Its authorship remains long after the designer has gone home with their small paycheck and large growler of bathtub-hooch.

Even if you repudiate that--and you shouldn't, because I'm handsome--a game system nonetheless represents a complicating factor in your own authorship. Mere engagement with these systems can tilt and nudge you out of your own biases, quirks, habits, foibles, and so on. They can help develop your bicameral mind-- switching between sides in a boardgame, viewpoints and perspectives in an RPG.

Anyway, if you've been to my Twitter (you should go make that mistake) you've undoubtedly seen the occasional battle-report (for example, Captain Finlay Stuart's naval adventures). Maybe you've seen me champion one of my favorite RPGs, Ironsworn by Shawn Tomkin. Maybe you've seen me and my friend Eric play a homebrew Fantasy Classic Mediterranean version of it, The Wine Sea Sagas as a GMless cooperative game.

You might rightly come to the conclusion that I carry on the legacy handed to me, and you can expect to see more of that legacy enshrined here.