Operation: Rolling Plunder

The Situation: A handful of Slime gangers have ambushed a Rutherford Logistics transport at a remote refueling depot and stolen the tractor-trailer. It is a huge score for the gangers if they can get away with it. However, it isn’t long before Rutherford Interceptors are roaring up the road behind the newly formed rag-tag convoy intent on taking back their truck.

The Scenario: The Slime team has 3-6 players with 25 can builds. They also have a well-built 55-can War Rig for ‘free’; the truck they are trying to get away with.

The set-up is an open highway chase with randomized scatter terrain on the roadsides as they travel. Rutherford will start with roughly equal cans in vehicles but have more expensive builds. This is a ‘rolling start’ game, so Slime players choose what gear they are in, Rolling Plunder starts in 3^rd, and Rutherford vehicles enter the board in 4^th gear (3^rd gear for Wreckers as that is their maximum.) Rutherford has three templates to choose from for pursuit. An Interceptor car, an ordinance truck called a Jackal, and a Heavy Truck with a harpoon known as a Wrecker. Their mission is simply to stop the truck and drive off the Slime gangers. To do this successfully the truck must be made to wipeout and drop to 1^st while two or more Rutherford vehicles are within short range of the rig AND no Slime vehicles are within double range When this happens the crew of the rig have been overwhelmed and Slime loses control it – and the scenario is over. Added complication: Rutherford will not shoot regular weapons at the truck until a designated landmark that indicates the Slime crew are past halfway home. Harpoons, net launchers, smash attacks, and anything to make the truck stop without shooting it up. After the halfway marker (which was a bridge in our game) Rutherford goes weapons-free preferring to see the truck and cargo destroyed over being stolen.

Scenario Vehicles:

Rolling Plunder (the stolen war rig): War Rig chassis. Ram front (cab), HMG sides (cab), 2xHMG sides (trailer), Glue Dropper rear (trailer), Smoke Dropper rear (trailer). (55 cans)

Rutherford vehicles:

Interceptor: Car chassis. HMG front, Ram front, +1 crew, Steel net launcher, Road Warrior perk. (27 cans)

Jackal: Truck chassis. Mortar turreted with 4 ammo (Rutherford), MG sides, Loader perk, Madman perk. (34 cans)

Wrecker: Heavy Truck chassis. Harpoon front, Ram front, Up-armored (+2 hull) 16 Hull Points. (55 cans)

Scenario rules:

• Respawn for both teams is set at 1 Audience Vote. It’s meant to be a high chassis count game. This is meant to be the only use for Audience Votes for this scenario, but other effects can be made available if the whole table agrees since Audience Votes will be in effect for the game.
• Slime can generate Audience Votes as usual and get one Audience Vote token for each Rutherford vehicle they wreck with their own vehicles. Wrecks caused by Rolling Plunder (the War Rig) do not generate these tokens.
• Rutherford generates 1 token each time Rolling Plunder wipes out (for any reason) and drops to gear 1. Rutherford can also ‘radio for backup’with a vehicle once per turn on that vehicle’s first full activation (Gear 2) after being placed onto the board, if they do not shoot or smash attack any vehicles that activation. Televised Carnage is not in effect for this scenario.
• Respawned vehicles: Vehicles can be spawned in during Gear 1 phase any turn. Slime vehicles enter from the ‘home’ side of the map (the direction they are running to). The vehicles start in whatever gear the driver wants (up to its maximum), with 0 Hazard Tokens, and are ‘reinforcements’ so any spent ammo tokens are refilled.  Rutherford vehicles spawn from the chasse side of the board (behind the fleeing truck and Slimers) and come onto the board in maximum gear with 0 Hazard Tokens and full ammo.
• Placing new vehicles into the map is their full Gear 1 movement. They can use the rest of their activation as normal.
• Rutherford begins with two Interceptors that find the convoy first. Gear 1 activation is placing them on the board.

===========================================================================

Our game:

The Slime team had 3 players with 25 can builds each. We were expecting 6 players for Slime, so kick-off felt a little uneven. One player wanted to use a Heavy Truck which is a 25 cans base cost template, so I let them spend 35 on that build.

Savage Sean was driving the Heavy Truck ‘Mr. Cuddlesworth.’ Equipped with a mine dropper, a ram, and a large crew with small arms including one with an SMG.

Zen-Max was behind the wheel of ‘That Slippery Devil’ which was a car with a turreted HMG, a roll cage, and the Fender Kiss perk.

Deacon Bryan of the Church of the W.O.T. (wide open throttle) was in control of two vehicles. A buggy called ‘The Rusty Gopher’ that had dropped mines, a forward ram, and a shotgun for the crew. Also the bike known by ‘Speedy Steve’ that was napalm droppers on the sides and a steel net launcher.

Set up started with the War Rig centered on the stretch of road and the Slime players positioning their vehicles however they liked for escort detail. Slime won the toss for Pole Position and activated first, beginning to move their convoy up the road. Turn one my first two activations in Gear 1 was putting my first two Interceptors in the road edge behind the convoy, starting the game. Gear 2 phase I used the scenario ability for one Interceptor and ‘radioed in’ to bank my first Audience vote to get more pursuit vehicles in place.

The starting map had a heck of a bottleneck on the road with fenced in areas on either side, something Slime took heavy advantage of. The ferociously built fences turned out to be quite a menace. One of my interceptors opted to burst through the fence rather than run the gauntlet of mines scattered in front of it – taking 7 hits (on 5 dice) and turning into a fiery wreck. A short time later The Rusty Gopher buggy would plow through a different place on the same fence to t-bone a Rutherford Jackal, and took 5 hits (on 5 dice) to do so, nearly wrecking himself as well. Tough fences in this part of the wasteland it would seem.

And the game is on!

Making a run for it, and learning to appreciate just how big the war rig is.

Making incredibly good use of irresponsible driving and a turreted machinegun, That Slippery Devil makes another bootlegger turn and spins around the Interceptors to begin his long run of harassing them from several angles.

We reset for new stretch of road after all Rutherford vehicles were wrecked out. The home stretch for Slime, they just need to get across the table and take the curve to the left. Rutherford is coming on from the right with it’s final units trying to cut the convoy off. One Interceptor, One Jackal, and two Wreckers are the last obstacle… and the Slime cars are all beat up and ragged – as they hadn’t been wrecked out at all yet!

The carnage was heavy at the end, with unmodified hot wheels littering the roads marking wrecks as vehicles respawned. Slime took several casualties in the last stretch but were all coming back rearmed and in force. We called it here, as the war rig was still moving and had only suffered one point of damage (from an exploding napalm carrying motorcycle). Slime won a decisive victory and got away with the loot!

A good time was had by all. This was our first attempt at an open road scenario, and most players were very new to the game but did really well. Sliding the roadway back and over became troublesome, so at a couple of points when there was a break in the action we took the opportunity to montage-reset a little to carry the fight down the road a bit and reset the board. The scenario is one I created and wrote for the group, and played well, though I’m sure it could use some tweaks. Some mistakes were made, but everyone enjoyed the game and want to play again, which is the real victory! ? The write up at the beginning is included in case anyone wants to use or tweak it for their own table. Have fun, play games, grind gears, collect hazards!