Hardwired 2 - Redneck Rescue!

Far out in the wastelands, surrounded by ruins and damaged cars, there stands an old gas station. One of our science team has set up a base in the garage, bringing in salvaged items from the wastes for repair. However, jealous yokels have captured her, potentially for dinner. As smoke from the redneck cannibals' cooking fire darkens the air, the alien overlords of the Conglomerate send out their minions to snatch the researcher and her data. An elite team assembles to rescue the researcher and bring her back home, before she falls into the wrong hands...

Yes, it's Hardwired again! This time, I played one of the other missions in the rulebook, namely the Seraph Protocol Mission. There were three objectives: kill the guards (in this case, the marauding yokels), disable the researcher's implanted cortex bomb (in this case, probably a stick of dynamite in a bucket) and usher her off the far side of the board.

The team assembled at one side of the board. Far away, their target stood between two guards.

It wasn't going to be easy getting her out of danger.

But actually, it was. The two thugs hit the ground in the first turn's shooting, and the team's hacker swiftly disabled the crude bomb. However, the enemy were gathering...

So the team ducked inside the gas station and took up positions.

A horde of thugs rushed the side of the gas station, looking to capture the flank and the priceless moonshine still inside.

And a team of heavily-armoured alien soldiers burst onto the scene, attacking from the front!

The team came out with guns blazing. The entire mob of enemies was cut down with three grenades and some vicious shooting. The team's medic sustained a wound but thankfully was able to patch himself up. Seeing her chance, the researcher fled off the table, and the mission was a success! The heroes settled down to enjoy the treasure trove of salvaged junk, and to make the most of the moonshine still.

This was another fast, enjoyable game using the Hardwired rules. As before, the game gets much, much harder as it goes on, as enemies pour into the area. It's frantic stuff, and I think I might have forgotten a couple of rules - but I forgot them equally, so the game remained as fair as ever. On the Give 'Em Lead blog, Maj Guiscard suggested making cards for the various types of agent - if I do much more Hardwired, I might give this a try.

Hardwired is built for one sort of game, bascially, but it might be interesting to try something a bit different. Making all the enemies medium-tough, but only giving them close combat weapons, might lead to an interesting Starship Troopers-type game. At any rate, it's an easy and enjoyable set of single-player rules, provided that you're prepared to improvise a little.