Battle on New-Tokyo - a small scale Gruntz Skirmish game between the Hell Divers and Pale Riders (Ex-RUSK)

By Harold
From: http://clearhorizonsalvage.blogspot.com/

Hell Divers from ClearHorizon Miniatures
RUSK from Armies Army
Gruntz available from: WargameVault

Buildings from Gamecraft Miniatures
Sidewalks, Planters, and Barricades from Warsenal
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This game is a little different than what you'll normally see.

Each force had four figures and each figure operated independently.  We built each figure using the Gruntz Specialist rules with a couple of guidelines for damage, sizes and armor etc.

We had a lot of fun.  It turned into a very tactical game where neither of us were willing to push and flank as much as we should have.  With only four figures it seems like any damage was very dangerous to the goal of accomplishing the mission.

It came down to putting the figures in the right places and hoping for luck.  Much like real life.

Both forces were pretty equally matched.  I want to do a game in the future that has asymmetrical forces to really push the boundaries of this ruleset.

It was about 100 points a side and took about an hour or so.

For activation we dealt a card from a normal card deck to each player for however many figures they had left.

Each player would then assign the cards so that the figures would activate from highest to lowest. We decided before hand which suits were in which order.

We would then announce the highest card we have and compare to the other player.  Whoever had highest would activate their figure and so forth.  This had a fun random and planned aspect to it that really added to the game.

We also ruled that grenades could be thrown at spots instead of just figures with normal to roll and scatter.

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Ghost turned around to watch the Sparrowhawk VTOL dust off and leave, skimming the top of the city roofs as it disappeared into the horizon. The team had managed to infiltrate the city block where the intel had indicated that the mercenary group “Pale Riders” had arranged to pick up the three remaining containers with the reactive and precursor agents for the Simplex 7 bio-weapon.  

It had been determined that only one of these containers would actually be required secure.  The correct container would allow the intel unit to discover not only the origin of this strain but to stop the Pale Riders from creating the dangerous pathogen.  The wrong containers would not only waste time, but be worthless from an intel standpoint as well.

While Ghost and his Hell Divers (Big John, Athena, and Hack) would normally not be on edge if this was simply another shoddy Merc unit, the Pale Riders were actually a group of former RUSK operatives (and former was debatable) and were as well trained and equipped as their unit was.  They had to go in light and hope that the element of surprise would work in their favor. 

Ghost’s HUD lit up, they had arrived at the target location…

Turn 1

Ghost surveys the area and carefully walks up to the parked police car at the curb police car.  He sees a shadow break cover and opens fire on Jailbreak.  The plasma bolts hit home and cause a severe burns on Jailbreak’s right arm. (Hits causing two points of damage (two left)

Grim jumps to action as soon as the sounds of gunfire become apparent and moves forward to the tree for cover and to get into a position to cover the box containing the mission objectives.

Blackjack nods to Grim and silently fans out to cover more area and provide an overlapping field of fire. To get a commanding view of the battlefield he moves to the second level and goes prone

Jailbreak moves to the buildings in front of him and takes cover behind the elevator with a clear view of the box.

Big John runs forward to cover closer to the box on the right side of the table.

Bang-o moves towards the taxi for cover and opens fire at Big John.  Big john is hit but his armor takes the impact and Big John takes no damage.

Hack runs up to the planter and opens fire at Bang-o but misses.

Athena runs up to the second level.

Turn 2

Ghost throws a grenade near Jailbreak which catches Jailbreak in the blast but causes no damage.

Blackjack moves forward firing at Athena but misses.

Jailbreak aims and fires at Ghost causing a critical hit and two points of damage.

Big John shoots at Bang-o taking careful aim and shoots through the taxi causing one point of damage.

Athena aims and opens fire on Blackjack but misses.

Hack aims and opens fire at Bang-O causing one point of damage.

Bang-o shoots back at Big John and causes a staggering three points of damage

Turn 3

Ghost aims and fires at Jailbreak causing a critical hit taking him down.

Blackjack, laying prone, aims and fires at Athena causing three points of damage

Big John aims and shoots at Bang-O but misses.

Jailbreak’s armor activates the auto-heal sequence pumping him full of fast acting drugs starting his heart and 

breathing again.  It’s most likely he won’t survive much longer than the battle but he manages to get to his feet again.

Athena aims and opens fire at Blackjack but misses

Hack aims and fires at Bang-o but misses

Bang-o aims and shoots at Hack but really misses

Grim moves up to steal Blackjack’s kill and shoots at Athena.  Athena is hit square in the chest and goes down as her suit’s auto-med starts the process to try and save her.

Turn 4

Jailbreak aims down the sights and fires on Ghost, taking him down.

Ghost’s suit patches him up and he stands back up behind cover.

Blackjack steps out of cover and shoots at Hack, causing a massive wound and four points of damage, 

which causes Hack to go down.

Big John sprints to the rightmost box and starts trying to open it.  He successfully opens it but it has the precursor agent not the deadly reactive agent. 

Bang-O moves into the open and fires on Big John causing a point of damage and Big John goes down.

Jailbreak opens fire on the recently recovered Ghost but Ghost’s armor takes the impact causing no damage.

Hack and Athena’s suits can only do so much and they succumb to the massive amount of trauma.

Ghost and Big John, now outnumbered and with little hope of successfully capturing the reactive agent exfil the area to the waiting Raven at the LZ.

Before Ghost boards the Raven he radios to the Orbiting Stealth Cruiser a coded message and moments later an orbital kinetic weapon launches and takes out a two-block radius, including the boxes and Pale Riders Merc team. 

Not exactly the most covert of options and now they'll be unable to determine the origin of the bio-weapon but it was a last resort since the Simplex 7 could easily kill millions. 

The Pale Rider’s bodies were never found. 

To be continued...