Desert Raiders!

Out at the end of the 'verse on the planet Sanctuary, 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.

Small settlement towns like Hyllestad, the site of a joint Norwegian-Canadian mining conglomerate's company town. Hyllestad has a wall around it and a 10-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. Before they show up, let's take a walk around town.

Overhead view of Hyllestad. The UN security compound is at the left end of the shot. Hab domes at the top rear, and landing pad at top right. Old adobe buildings in the center. Shipping containers and modular shacks make up the rest of the structures.

Looking through the front gate, one of the UN Legionnaires pulls security in front of the old adobe buildings from the first settlers' time.

Workers unload crates from a shuttle at the landing pad.

Put the crates over there, guys.

Legionnaires at the gate of the security compound.

The generator inside the inner compound.

The UGV sits inside the UN security compound. If a Legionnaire can get to the UGV and spend a turn activating it, he can control it remotely and drive it out to the fight.

Ornithopter in the security compound.

View of the security compound with the facility headquarters. Generator in the background.

Reverse angle shot.

Legionnaires on patrol in the old town.

The local doc meeting a patient at the front of the hab dome that houses the small clinic. "Sir, your tests came back. I have bad news..."

The Red Band assembles outside the walls before their charge toward Hyllestad. Vehicles from left to right: Gun Buggy, Bloody Mary, Kneecapper, Mothership, and War Wagon.

Nelly, leader of the Red Band raiding party, out front with her heavy pistol. Minis are from Elhiem's Dark Future post-apocalyptic range, as are many of the vehicle add-ons.

The Red Band blows a hole in the wall, and comes bursting through!

Red Band vehicles in the background lay down a hail of fire that knocks out two of the guards.

A flurry of small arms fire immobilizes Kneecapper, a Red Band vehicle equipped with a dual machine gun turret and wheel blades.

The rules provide random movement for the townsfolk, but if the random movement takes them to two designated armories, they are then under the control of the player controlling the town forces.

More townsfolk man the rooftops. In retrospect, I made the generation of more forces too easy for the good people of Hyllestad.

The Mother Ship, the Red Band's large troop carrier, has its main gun knocked out by small arms fire.

The bodies stack up at the gate of the security compound.

More townsfolk take to the rooftops.

Small arms fire has reduced both the War Wagon and Mothership to 1/2 speed.

The some of the crew in Kneecapper dismount. One hopped-up spearman rushes toward the security compound gate (out of frame) while his buddy, Zeke, puts down some covering fire from behind the cover of the vehicle.

And Zeke gets shot down!

Small arms fire destroys the Mothership!

The Mothership crew dismounts and runs for the safety of a building. One of them doesn't make it.

One of the Red Band spear guys makes a suicidal run into one of the armory buildings in an attempt to stab one of the local heroes rallying the Hyllestad populace. Hero at bottom right of the picture.

In a series of amazing dice rolls, spear guy avoided a hail of gunfire and successfully knocked the hero out of the fight! Next turn's hail of gunfire would get him, though.

The Mothership crew makes a run for the hole they blew in the wall with one hostage in tow, when townsfolk gunfire cuts down two of their number, including their leader, Nelly.

Too late to matter, one of the Legionnaires gets the UGV into action and it rolls out of the gate of the UN security compound. All that's left is a bunch of smoking vehicles and bloody bodies.

With that, we called it a game. Everyone had a great time, and we will definitely replay the scenario.

I've spent a while assembling and painting the forces and terrain to make this game work, and I'm glad I finally came together. 

We played with my homebrew rules, Heavies, Heroes, and Hordes. A few amendments to the rules going forward:

- I need a first aid chart for Minis to give buddy aid to each other.

- The vehicles need a standalone maneuverability stat instead of a modifier. It would be simpler.

- The townsfolk generated into fighters too easily. They should have to spend at least a turn in the armory buildings getting a weapon, and only turn into a fighter on a successful roll. They also did all the heavy lifting for the town's defenders after seven or eight of the ten UN Legionnaires were out of the fight.

For that matter, I'm a novice desert raider commander, and my tactics going forward will definitely change. The vehicles were garage-built uparmored vehicles that just had metal plates welded on, so they weren't bulletproof, just "bullet resistant." I had envisioned driving them around and staying mobile, but they were shot up too easily. Red Band fighters will have to dismount earlier to get more guns into the fight.

Hope you enjoyed reading as much as we did playing!