Beastmen vs. Humans, Savage Worlds Showdown!

Picking up where we left off a few years ago in the Campaign for the Darkened Wood, the human kingdom had just come out on top in a three-way battle versus the Elf-Dwarf coalition and the dastardly Orcs. While the Elf-Dwarf gang and the Orc mob duked it out to the death, the humans rushed in, grabbed several magical (radioactive?) rocks that had fallen from the sky and would be useful in enticing a wizard to work for the human king.

Now the humans have departed with the loot and are making their way back to human lands. But first they must pass through a stretch of swamp. The swampy green ground on either side of the path through the swamp imposed a movement penalty on the humans. 

Any beastmen that may be in the swamp were immune to this penalty, owing to their swift movement and long legs. And the beastmen were hoping to get the meteorites from the men, in order to lure a necromancer to join their faction and add legions of the undead to their cause (any excuse to dust off old Warhammer skeletons).

We played this with the Savage Worlds Showdown! rules, using the excellent cards from Fistful of Lead for activations.

The column of human soldiers filing through the swamp.

Led by the brave and trusty Captain Trent, along with a scout hired to lead the convoy back to the kingdom of men.

Captain Trent close-up.

And a close-up of the local scout, a Norse woodsman who is handy with a bow and knows these woods well.

The convoy has advanced halfway across the board without incident. So far, so good...

...so what! Beastmen emerge from the nearby woods, charging toward the column of men.

Two beastmen charge the rear of the column...

...and one of the human soldiers goes down immediately, the victim of a nasty axe blow.

The humans rally and wrap around the beastmen, hoping to put their superior numbers to use, even though they are inferior to the beastmen in one-on-one combat.

Two more beastmen charge into battle further up the column.

The two beastmen at the trail of the column both have yellow Shaken counters.

One of the beastmen at the end of the column goes down, overwhelmend by the numbers of the human soldiers.

Things are looking better for the beastmen in the middle of the column, where they have temporary numerical superiority, and the human scout is wounded and has a yellow Shaken marker. But then a fortuitous initiative card removes the Shaken status.

Things go south for the beastmen at the back of the column, with both beastmen brought down by superior human numbers.

One of the beastmen in the middle of the column goes down from a lucky blow.

The beastman will breaks, and one of them runs off.

Human archers try to shoot the fleeing beastman, but miss.

The beastman runs off to live another day!

Things have gone very poorly for the beastman chieftain, who is one wound short of death.

The beastman chieftain flees sucessfully, expending all remaining Bennies (free saves) to get off of the field alive.

The beastman faction has been reduced to two beastmen. So much for getting a necromancer to build up their numbers. We decided to retire the beastmen as a going concern in the campaign. Any time they might appear from here on out would just be the two surviving members of their faction.

As a review note, the Savage Worlds Showdown system does account well for the weight of individually inferior combatants swarming superior ones. Had I appropriately accounted for this prior to moving in the beastmen, I might have changed how I deployed them.

Desert Raiders 2

We return to Hyllestad, a small town out at the end of the 'verse on the planet Sanctuary, where things are tough. The local mining for rare metals is highly lucrative, but the rule of law is weak and gangs roam the desert making a living extorting money and terrorizing the small settlement towns.

Raiders!

We previously played a wastelander raid on the town in this post, which I highly recommend you read before going forward.

Hyllestad, the site of a joint Norwegian-Canadian mining conglomerate's company town, has a wall around it and a 20-man UN Legion security detachment, complete with one Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) for extra firepower. The current residents of Hyllestad include a few local gunslingers who do private security work to keep convoys and payrolls secure from the local gangs, and the townsfolk keep plenty of weapons on hand.

It may not be enough. Today the Red Band, a gang of outland raiders in vehicles armored up with scrap metal plates, is paying Hyllestad a visit. 

I have raised my battle-tracking game since the last play-through. Here's the Order of Battle (OOB) sheets I've created to track the Red Band raiders, with the vehicles listed and personnel inside of them placed on base-sized slots to track all of the Red Band fighters:

Click to Embiggen the image. It will make more sense.

The Red Band. From left to right for vehicles: Gun Buggy, Bloody Mary, Kneecapper, Mothership, War Wagon. I somehow left out Crusher, but it's in the battle report.

Close-up of the Red Band fighters. Mimi, their leader, at center with her heavy pistol.

There are four lances of UN troopers, with five troopers in each. One has an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) that must be controlled by one of the troopers.

One of the UN Legion lances, with UGV in the background.

Another UN Legion lance, moving forward into action.

Before the attack starts, let's take a walk around town.

Overhead view of town.

UN Legionnaires on patrol in town.

Workers unloading a bird at the airpad.

More UN Legionnaires on patrol.

Legionnaires walking the town, talking to locals.

The inner compound, with secured generator and UN Legion UGV in the background.

Local doctor at the clinic, telling some poor guy that his test results aren't good.

I'm a smarter land raider now, so in contrast to last time I didn't bust my convoy of through the wall nearest a concentration of people, and by extension, guns that could shoot back. The key to effective desert raiding is cracking a hole in a wall and then getting your raiders dismounted and causing mayhem.

So, here we go:

Raiders bust through one of the outer walls!

 

From the back end of the caravan of raider vehicles.

Two of the UN Legionnaires are cut down by raider fire immediately.

BOOM! Then one of the vehicles crashed, a victm of effective small arms fire from the gunfighter on the roof with the blue ballcap.

A few townspeople hiding behind the skimmer.

One of the UN Legionnaires gets to the Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) and fires it up.

Other Legionnaires protecting the inner compound.

Two more Legionnaires get peeled off by raider fire.

The raider vehicle Kneecapper gets immobilized.

The fight at the edge of the inner compound heats up and almost everybody is hit.

Now the raiders go further into the town. Both War Wagon and the Mothership have been reduced to half speed by small arms fire.

With Kneecapper immobilized, the surviving crew jump out.

A raider gets killed.

Now a raider charges up the stairs and tries to take on everyone on the roof by himself.

He gets past the low-stat locals and spears one of the gunfighters leading the town's defense! Blue ballcap guy is down!

Raiders on the move in the mothership.

 

The Bloody Mary crashes into the checkpoint at the front gate.

A UN Legionnaire witnesses the Bloody Mary crash.

The crew of the Bloody Mary dismount and take out the Legionnaire.

One of the Bloody Mary crew charges toward a UN Legionnaire.

The spearman raider lays low the Legionnaire and charges on toward the bounty hunter.

The bounty hunter, one of the local town heroes, pivots to confront the raider.

The bounty hunter lays the raider low.

The remaining Bloody Mary crew member uses the vehicle as cover and tries to shoot the bounty hunter.

The bounty hunter comes out on top again!

Oh no! along comes a  raider vehicle and shoots down the bounty hunter!

Across town, villagers scramble and a Legionnaire and one of the town leaders give conflicting commands.

The War Buggy on the move.

A straphanger riding on the side of a Red Faction vehicle.

Machine gunner on the top of the Crusher.

View of the battle from the gunner's perspective.

A raider crew dismounted and using the War Wagon as cover.

Raider vehicles on the move, with dismounted raiders running amok.

Here comes the cavalry! 

The UGV goes rolling in guns blazing and a raider vehicle takes a hit.

Across the compound, the Mothership unloads a crew of raiders.

That crew is quickly cut down by fire. I don't remember by whom, but they're lying there bleeding.

Two townsfolk jump out of a prefab shack to confront Mimi and her raiders.

They draw their guns at each other in a standoff.

They stare at each other, waiting for one side to make a move.

And Mimi's side wins initiative and guns down the townsfolk.

A Red Band raider escorts a villager out of town at gunpoint.

Mimi and her crew round up a villager for ransom.

Red Band raiders hop into their vehicles and ride off.

Two Red Band raiders walk hostages out of town.

A lonely UN Legionnaire surveys the carnage with smoke billowing from a wrecked raider vehicle in the background.

The end result of the raid was a pyhhric victory for the Red Band. They took a few hostages alive for ransom out of town, but took heavy casualties in the process. This was a grand skirmish game with many figures in play at any given time, and we all had a great time playing. We hope to play this scenario again in the future and see how it comes out.