Endgame's End Game

 Putting down for posterity the events which concluded the racially motivated arsons adventure arc in my The Blood of Heroes (tBoH)supers roleplaying game. The portable drive got jostled during play and stopped saving data half way through. What I have is going up as an episode for the podcast, but much needs to be shared here.

Bug and Mettle drop back into the halls of the closed radio building and force their way into Endgame's control room where the mobster has the brainwashed Shamrock Bane film crew. It is all set up for round 2 against Troll and more special ops soldiers when Endgame takes their offer of de-escalation.  The gangster can't believe it at first but eventually comes around to the fact the PCs mean what they say. Turn over Shamrock and they will walk away. Further, don't sell guns and terrorize people and the PCs would leave Endgame unmolested long term. 

If Bug and Mettle can keep the other players in line as well Endgame is content to "play" along with the PCs. The value in de-escalation to overall profits is not lost on Endgame and he can't turn down the numbers. Of course he believes he can get another chance at killing the PCs down the road.

Before the PCs return to the city with their traumatized friend a mysterious black helicopter appears over the radio station and fires several Hellfire missiles into it. The attack copter delivers its full payload of 8 missiles before flying away. The building is nothing but a smoking pile of rubble. Nothing could survive the collapse if they were inside. It could only be assumed Endgame and his minions were still inside at the beginning of the attack. Troll could survive though and this EE proved it by mutating further, gaining more mass, size and power! The heroic duo coordinate abilities and put the kaiju-sized villain down before he can destroy the suburbs. 

This prompts a call to Bisbee Sharp and the FBEE, see if the feds could clean up their mess. It is not a pleasing idea to the SAIC. He resents getting led around by the nose by the PCs as they smash Capitol City gangs. The PCs have been effective, but the cost in lives and property has turned the public opinion against EEs and the government's use of them as law officers. Bug and Mettle promise they are going to bring peace to the streets if left alone to do their work, but Bisbee has yet to see the full fruits of their labor. 

Shamrock Bane is turned over to the staff at New Bedlam Asylum to heal her mind. She gets transferred along with the serial arsonist the heroes helped the FBEE apprehend. Troll is packaged in the EE containment truck and driven north to the STARHOLD downport. Their holding cells are the strongest the FBEE has right now to contain powerful EEs.

And that is kind of it. The rest of the session was spent going over the connected events so far and considering where the game goes in the future. Plot-wise it will be searching for Creepazoid and his pals Backtrack and Leatherneck. These EEs were encountered in the very first episode of tBoH Capitol City campaign. Pretty cool we are going back to a cold story thread and following the string. Like most of the plot elements in the campaign world, Creepazoid and the story behind it is not really formed. I am not modeling the entire campaign setting, only where the PCs are and only what has relevance to the action at hand. Pretty standard GM techniques. 

With the deflation which comes with an adventure arc concluding I almost talked myself into taking a break. I have been running an online game of some sort non-stop since 2012. I am definitely feeling burnout and challenged to be enthused for another creative work out which is running a ttrpg is. But thankfully I reminded myself this isn't just for fun. There are a tremendous amount of new emotional frontiers to experience and ideas to engage with and so little time! It took me about 5 days to get out of the funk, the ennui. But once I had a plot situation worthy of engagement in mind the sheer determination to win at all creative costs has been sustained. Tally ho!

Clash at Einghiem - AH Napoleon Game Turn cont.

 I arrange the Allied units on the battle board with little to no choice in arrangement. Since all three spaces (left, right and center) need to be filled all three of the allied units are committed to battle. It is a mix of all three types; cavalry, artillery and infantry. The French are four units strong, two infantry and two cavalry. The forces are arrayed as such:

As mentioned in the previous post, to achieve victory in battle a player needs to advance and control any one space in their opponent's line.  I move 3 of the French units onto the "middle ground" of the battle board and engage the enemy cavalry unit and the artillery battery. There are attack modifiers for cavalry units and artillery has a ranged attack and other combat rules, nothing complicated, and the most of the rules you need to know are printed right on the battle board.

The French assault is doomed from the start. The Allies score an artillery hit before engagement and after melee the French losses total 3 hits to the Allied forces 1 hit. This all but destroys any hope of knocking the Allies off the field of battle before reinforcements arrive from the next town over. At the first opportunity I pull back what units I can as the Allies move two more infantry units from nearby towns on good roads. 

The balance has well past shifted now the force array is 5 units versus 4 units, and these 4 units are one step away from obliteration as it is. If you look carefully you can see all the steps the French force lost while doing negligible damage to the Allies!

With the battle concluded and my retreat successful (you need cavalry units to "safely" withdraw) the game turn advances. No need to waste time dithering, the play of the game is fairly obvious at this point, set up battles with your opponent when you can funnel more troops into the contest and smash them on the field with an equally punishing retreat from battle.  The final moves I make before I stuff the game back into its box and place it back on the bookshelf are to throw as many units at each other as I can. This ends up low and behold, in Ligny!

The French split forces and move enough units to displace the two Allied cavalry units and the large French cavalry force slides west to be within 2 spaces of Ligny. So the French will be pouring reinforcements into the second and third battle turn from 2 roads and the same for the Allies.

I'm not going to set up the battle board and grind out the engagement. I think the point, and playability, of the game are apparent. I see Napoleon giving a great game session. Players will get a chance to outmaneuver one another and the decision can come about through a massive battle where you wipe out your foe! I think this game will keep players engaged from start to finish! 

First Superhero Campaign Arc Comes to a Close

First post of the new year is about endings. Specifically, the first “campaign” arc of Even Heroes Bleed has concluded with a tacit acknowledgment of the fact opposed to some earth-shattering conclusion or epic battle.  In a sense, perfect for the moment.

Perfect in some significant changes have come to the campaign city because of the PCs actions and there are numerous plot hooks and adventure seeds trembling in the breeze waiting for the PCs to pursue. In no small order they are,

1. What is going on with Starhold? Two weeks ago saw the tragic loss of the Starhold shuttle during a regularly scheduled flight to the orbiting prison. Without a space shuttle for transport any EEs charged with criminal activity will have to be imprisoned on earth and earthly facilities have not been thoroughly tested against EE powers and capabilities. The recently defeated Troll is an example of such a conundrum. He is currently being shipped to the Starhold downport facility. Hopefully the building and personnel will be sufficient to keep the criminal EE incarcerated. Also, the passenger on board the shuttle when it exploded was not a nobody. It was the son of Dr. McKeever, the missing scientist on the federally funded COVID-24 task force and now believed to be an EE himself called Metereon (Me-ter-on). Knockout was also a member of the research team, and she is still missing, fate unknown.

Codename Wolf, McKeever’s son was carrying an alien meteor shard. The shard, found during an EE operation, was gaining mass hourly and Wolf was the only person capable of lifting it and moving it around. It was decided by the Feds the safest place for it was in the weightlessness of space on Starhold. With the shuttle explosion it can only be assumed the alien meteor shard will return to earth’s surface.

2. What is going to be the fate of BAM! addicts? With no more access to the drug these drug sufferers are experiencing terrible withdrawal and lashing out murderously. This would not be more then a mental health crisis but for the fact some addicts violently explode while others have gained enhanced abilities. Murderous drug fiends with superpowers loose on the streets may end up Capitol City’s worst problem yet.

3. What will the mayor do? Mayor Umpstead has declared all EE’s illegal within city limits, and he is aware the PCs know he is behind the arsons and real estate scam. Can he really maintain a truce with the PCS and conduct business as normal? One must think not.

4. What will replace the Baltimore? Bug had secured the North Elmview slum as a haven for the homeless, off limits to criminals and cops. Now that it is in ashes where will Bug and Mettle take their homeless wards?

5. Where did the black helicopter come from in this last episode? Yes, the classic black helicopter paid a visit over Endgame’s hideout launching Hellfire missiles and reducing the building to smoldering rubble. Military grade for sure, but who is pulling the strings on this weapon of death? And did Endgame survive the attack?

And finally, 5. What is up with those weird creatures from the first episode? You know, Creepazoid, Backtrack, and Leatherneck? Bug is convinced these strange beings are more victims than evil aggressors and our hero is wanting to find them and find out more about them. It will take a journey into the sewers of Capitol City to find answers to these questions.

 

 

Avalon Hill Napoleon Play Thru Part 1

 I’ve plopped Napoléon, the venerable wargame Avalon Hill inherited from Columbia Games, onto the kitchen table intending to bull-rush my way through a solo game. The operational goals are to experience the entire game. The strategy to be employed to reach this goal is not dwell on rules too much. Begin with the sequence of play and grind out each turn as quickly as possible. The game is going to be friendly to this approach because of the limited components. Setting up the competing armies for play can be done briskly. The rules are delightfully brief and the movement system is very understandable. It only takes a few turns to move your armies around before you get the logic of the conflict space.

This means no dwelling on optimal placement of forces during set up. I’m going to trust the game will reveal how the forces should be organized in offense and defense as I move the armies into contact.

The victory conditions are on point, destroy your opponents army. Reduce your opponent and make them unable to resist. 

Roads can handle only so many troops before it is closed for further movement for that player’s turn. The 2 types of roads are major and minor. River crossings cut this limit by half. Towns with multiple roads leading in and out of them become the key terrain feature to leverage tactically. Their radiating spokes allow mutual support of each other’s units, a key to success. You win the game by having substantial reinforcements to funnel into a battle while denying the defender the same.

I open the French with movement on the eastern flank. Cavalry units with a small contingent of infantry and aritllery. The river is crossed just north of Givet across the Belgium frontier.

On the second day of hostilities Wellington reacts to the French provocation shifting cavalry and artillery in a blocking position at Namur. These forces are supported by more Prussian units which are close enough to reinforce any battle which may erupt here. Note the defensive use of the river. This restricts the amount of forces an attacking French army can bring to bear on the first battle turn and striking with overwhelming numbers in the first battle turn is a vital way to massacring your enemy and winning the game.

The French June 16 move is spent moving the forces in the center up to engage Ligny and Quatro Bras. Namur has too large of a troop concentration to attack so the attack will be directed at a weaker point in the center which does not include a water crossing. This was basically the intent of the French initial moves. The troops occupying Conde move in support of the center’s left flank and intends to harass the allies from Soignes.

The Prussians coordinate with Wellington to set up a defense against Napoleon in the center. Napoleon moves up his forces on the left to Soignes. The French hope to pin down enough forces south of Waterloo in preparation for the main attack against Ligny. Noting the pressure Napoleon is flexing on his right flank the Allies are content to sit pat. Time is on their side and the French forces committed are not an alarming threat. Wellington sees the battle of consequence will be at Ligny.

The dice placed on the table is my marker to track how many troop counters have marched down a particular road for the turn. Mastery of the game requires mastery of the road network and moving more troops into a battle than your opponent. Here is a picture of the movement and set up around Namur and Ligny. A French strike on either of these two towns would face Allied troops streaming in from three different directions! The French cavalry on the lower right 

is positioned so to swing left and support an attack on Quatro Bras. Cavalry can move 2 towns compared to infantry and artillery at one town a turn. And forced march! Don't forget about forced march. It clearly is worth the chance of attrition loss in a forced march to get more troops into a key position before a battle erupts. 

Currently the troops in front of Napoleon are more numerous and in better position so I decide to demonstrate on the Allies right. I attack Einghiem.

Four French units vs. three Allied units. The French consist of two infantry units, and two unit of cavalry. Allied forces are an infantry unit, cavalry and artillery. One of each here. The French will need to knock out the enemy on the first battle turn, otherwise Wellington can move two additional infantry units and tip the balance in their favor. Next post we will take the units off the game board and transfer them to the battlefield and I get to see how a set-piece battle is played in this game.