Sunday 17 May 2020

First Blood in the Badlands - Solomunda Campaign


The five heroes headed deep into the wasteland, following the plume of smoke that rose from the crashed spaceship. But they were not the only people who had noticed the fallen craft. A Khornate cult, the Brotherhood of the Grisly Truth, saw the ship fall to earth and decided that, since they weren't going to worship it, they were going to kill everyone in the vicinity. Appalled by this lack of scientific method, Doctor Apocalypse gave the order to advance. The two sides met in a network of ruins, and the battle began!

A blimp drifts over the wasteland, promising a better life in a different franchise.

The heroes were outnumbered two-to-one, but they used the longer range on their lasguns to pin the cultists and stagger their advance. Soon the casualties were mounting, but it wasn't enough to stop Maria Poppinata falling to a lucky autopistol shot. With controlled firing, the heroes managed to kill off enough cultists to force them to take a bottle test. Would the enemy flee the field? No!

This bit was much more exciting than it looks.


The two sides closed in and the cultists' autopistols took their toll. Doctor Apocalypse was shot down as he took cover. Two frothing cultists rushed Doombot X-7: he blasted one, and the other smacked him right in the gearbox. With 60% of their crew out of action, the heroes took a bottle test, and heroically ran like hell.

The cultists dance triumphantly around the ruined spaceship, shortly before trying to work out what it is.


The heroes were in a bad state. Of the three who were taken out of action, only Doombot X-7 was repaired to his usual condition. Doctor Apocalypse sustained hideous scars, resulting in him causing fear (presumably these scars are on his face, but who knows?). Only Maria Poppinata sustained serious negative effects, taking a chest wound that reduced her toughness to 2 and didn't do her singing voice any good either.

The heroes stumbled back towards town, looking to heal up and resupply. But as they staggered off, X-7's internal speakers crackled. He'd picked up a distress signal, coming from nearby. It appeared the pilot had bailed out, straight into cultist territory...

*

So, a few thoughts. This was the "gang fight" mission from the Necromunda rulebook, in case you're wondering. Did it work? Yes, I think so. It was a very fast and entertaining game. The superior skill of the heroes was offset well by the numbers of the villains, especially when the fighting closed up and the bonuses for carrying autopistols started to add up. As with a lot of classic Necromunda, it came down to the bottle rolls and, frankly, the cultists were lucky to stay in the field as long as they did. Now we'll see how the rules I've made for resupply work. On to the next mission - rescuing the pilot!

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