Strontium Dog Scenario 01 - Introduction part 1

I've been promising you a Strontium Dog batrep for a while now and here it is. Because this is my first such batrep it is going to be very rules heavy as I explain everything that is going on. Future batreps will be much shorter and less wordy. Strontium Dog mainly uses special designed six-sided combat dice with Hit symbols (explosions) on three faces, Armour symbols (shields) on two faces and a Special symbol (2000AD logo) on one side. Occasionally, normal d6s are used. Models have six statistics - Move (the distance they can move in inches with one action), Shoot (the number of dice they roll when using a ranged weapon), Fight (the number of dice they roll when in close combat), Evade (the number of dice they roll to dodge an incoming attack), Resist (the number of dice they roll to stop or reduce the damage of an attack) and Cool (which determines how many actions the model can take in a turn or how well the model can avoid getting hit, injured, pinned or stunned). At times a model will have to take a stat test (for example an Evade test to dodge an attack) and if so the player rolls one dice per point of that stat the model has at the time. Unless otherwise stated, a stat test needs a Special result to succeed, in other words, at least one roll that shows the 2000AD logo.
Models can take two actions per turn, either two single actions or one double action. Single actions are Move, Snap Shot, Throw, Fight or Shake It Off. Double actions are Aimed Fire, Sprint, Charge, Jump/Climb, Set Overwatch or Hunker Down.
THE SET UP
The set up sequence has ten parts and I'll go through each one in turn.

1. Choose Leaders
I chose Johnny Alpha to lead Team Alpha who'd use the red tokens against Stix Brother #1 to lead the Stix Brothers and they'd use the black tokens. Leaders have to have a Cool stat of 4 or better. Johnny is Cool 5 and Stix is Cool 4.
2. Draw Armoury Cards
Each side draws six Armoury cards at random and may keep three of them. Johnny has a special skill called Well Equipped, which allows him to retain one extra card. The four cards that Johnny kept were Electronux, Medipack, No.3 Cartridge and No.4 Cartridge. The three cards that Stix #1 kept were Beam Polariser, Frag Bomb and Gas Bomb.
3. Determine Protagonists
To determine which side is the protagonist for the coming side both leaders roll 1d6 and the highest wins. The loser becomes the defender. Ties are re-rolled. I rolled 5 for Johnny and 2 for Stix, so Team Alpha would be the protagonists.
4. Generate Job
To determine what the protagonist wanted to achieve I rolled 1d6 twice on the Job Table on p.80 and got Gunfight followed by Takedown. Both sides would have 100,000 creds Collateral to spend if they wanted. No special rules applied. The game would end when 50% (or more) of a sides named models were down. All models taken down would be worth their bounty value to the other side.
5. Recruit Band
I decided to go with the recommended rule of having both sides with a limit of 50 Notoriety. Johnny has a Notoriety of 22. He chose Wulf Sternhammer with a Notoriety of 15 and Durham Red with a Notoriety of 13, bringing him up to 50 exactly. Stix Brother #1 has a Notoriety of 10, so he simply chose four more Stix Brothers to bring his total up to 50.
6. Roll For Encounter
Once the players know what job is being undertaken, it is time to work out how the two sides meet. The defender rolls 1d6 on the Encounter Table on p.81 and cross references it with the protagonist's job to determine the encounter. For the most part, the encounter defines how the models are placed on the table at the start of the game, but also details what extra resources that might be at hand, and particular tricks or strategies one side or the other can employ to gain the upper hand. The encounter I rolled for was Face Off - exchanging threats and insults, the two bands closed on each other determined to be the only ones to walk away.

Starting with their leaders, the two sides took turns deploying a model at least 9" away from the centre line running from the short side of the board to the other short side. The defender went first. The board I played on measured 36" by 24", which is smaller than the recommended 36" by 36" but it didn't make any difference to the outcome. Besides which, 3 feet square is just a recommendation and isn't mandatory. The terrain on the board consists of four of my Battle Systems Shanty Town buildings, one and a half Shanty Town gaming mats, three rock towers that I purchased from Warlord Games but I forget who actually produced them. The cacti, small lake and wrecked car are all from Wargames Terrain Workshop. The centre of the car denotes the centre of the gaming board.

Here are Durham Red, Johnny Alpha and Wulf Sternhammer lined up next to one of the three rock towers.

The Stix Brothers lined up in the main street of the settlement. I identified them as Stix Brothers #1, #2, #3, #4 and #5 from left to right. Neither side gained any extra Collateral for this encounter and no special rules applied. However, each side got a Chicanery tactic to play immediately after deployment and I'll go through them below. For Team Alpha it was Sneak and for the Stix Brothers it was Expecting Trouble.

7. Draw Chicanery Cards
Players are each dealt three Chicanery cards. These cards can be used as explained in their individual rules, or cards may be expended at other times for certain bonuses. The cards drawn for Team Alpha were Raargh!, Red Sneak Attack and Wrong-Footed. The cards drawn for the Stix Brothers were Adrenaline Surge, Firing Line and Stone Cold. The photo above shows part of the area of my dining room table in front of my gaming board. From left to right are my A4 note book (I took 8 pages of notes for this batrep!), the stat cards for Team Alpha, their 4 Armoury cards and their 3 Chicanery cards

Here's the other side of my dining room table. In the top left is a box containing all the black and red tokens needed for the game. In front of that is my personalised Vampifan Nerd Herd dice bag, a gift from Andy of Da Gobbo's Grotto fame (thanks, Andy!). It'll be used for placing the Action chips in so that I can draw them out without knowing which one I'll be drawing. Next in line is my extendable tape measure; every gamer should have one. The tokens numbered 1 to 5 are there to show which Stix Brother has activated in the turn. To the right of them is the Stix Brother stat card (only one because they're all identical). Below it are their 3 Armoury cards and 3 Chicanery cards and finally, at the far right is the rulebook.
8. Spend Collateral
Now that the players know about the coming fight, they may then spend Collateral to hire more models, giving them additional gear and other expenditures as described in the Collateral rules on p.79. and also in the relevant parts of the encounter description. The defending player spends any Collateral first, it being assumed that the protagonist will have done some basic scouting on the enemy before launching an attack. I wanted to keep things simple so neither side spent any Collateral.
9. Deploy Models
Scenery and models are placed on the tabletop as described in the encounter description. 

Before the game could start properly, both sides had a Chicanery tactic to play. For Team Alpha that was Sneak, which allowed them to move up to three models 1d6" closer, rolling for each model separately. Durham moved off to her right 4"; whilst Johnny moved forward and to his left 5", closely followed by Wulf who moved 4". Those were three good rolls.

The Chicanery tactic for the Stix Brothers was Expecting Trouble, which allowed them to activate one model for free, who could take two single actions or one double action before any Action chips were drawn. Stix Brother #3 moved his full 5" forward for his first single action.

Then he fired a Snap Shot at long range with his Custom Hand Blaster at Durham Red. She was 14" away from him and in the open. Long range for Hand Blasters is between 8" and 16" in this game. No modifiers applied to his Shoot stat of 3 so he rolled 3 combat dice looking for Hits. He scored 1 Hit. Durham got the chance to dodge it by rolling 3 combat dice for her Evade stat of 3, looking for any Special results. She succeeded with 1 Special result and negated the attack.

In addition, she had the option of moving 3" in any direction and could change her facing. She moved to cover beside the rock tower. Durham has the Gunfighter skill, which allows her to get a return Snap Shot off at the attacker providing that she not be Pinned (either already or by the incoming attack), have the attacker in her Front Fire arc and have a ranged weapon which can be used for a Snap Shot. She met all three criteria so she Snap Fired back with her twin Custom Hand Blasters. She gained a +1 bonus to her Shoot stat of 3 because she was firing two pistols at once.

Looking for Hits on the 4 combat dice she rolled, incredibly she managed to score 4 Hits. This equalled the Stix Brother's Cool stat, so he was automatically Pinned. He attempted to dodge the attack but only having an Evade stat of 1, he failed to get a Special result on the combat die. Next, Durham rolled 4 combat dice for the Power of her pistols to see how much damage she could do. Once again looking for Hits, she scored 3 of them. Stix Brother #3 had the chance to reduce their effectiveness by rolling combat dice equal to his Resist stat of 4. He gained  a +1 bonus, taking it up to 5 because Durham fired two pistols at once - a case of quantity over quality. Looking for Armour results he only scored 1, so Durham's damage score of 3 was reduced to 2. A result of 2 on the Injury Chart meant that he was seriously injured and he took two Injury markers. For the rest of the game, all of his stats would by reduced by one per Injury marker he sustained. Note that Injury markers can be removed by a Medipack or by taking the Hunker Down double action.
10. Start Playing
Count up the number of Action chips for each side and place them in a bag. The game turn starts by drawing Action chips, one at a time, from a bag. When a player gains an Action chip, they choose a model to activate and take actions with it, either two single actions or one double action. A player can select any one of their models on the table top who hasn't activated yet to use their Action chip. Leave their Action chip beside the model (I placed them on their character cards for Team Alpha or by the five numbered tokens for the Stix Brothers) after it has completed its actions to show it has activated this turn and can't activate again. When a Star chip is drawn (Star chips are used by models with a Cool stat of 4+, which was everyone in this scenario) there is a chance that it isn't left on the table top afterwards and instead gets returned to the bag. This leaves the model free to act again later in the turn and means that a Star chip is in the bag ready to come out again later in the turn. Star chips are good!
Once the chosen model has completed its activation from a Star chip, take a Cool test for the model by rolling one combat dice for each point of Cool the model has currently. If any of the dice roll a Special result, the Star chip is returned to the bag and the model may activate again later in the turn with another Action chip (an ordinary one or a Star chip). Theoretically a model could keep being activated indefinitely but even models with Cool 5 will eventually fail. Note that Star chips do not have to be used on models with a Cool of 4 or greater when they are drawn. This represents the leadership and confidence (or fear) by having a hardened bounty hunter or outlaw on the model's team. Clearly the chance of a model with a lower Cool passing the test to return the Star chip to the bag is lower, but it can happen.
Failing the Cool test to return a Star chip to the bag comes at a price, however. Not only is the Star chip left in place to indicate that the model cannot activate again this turn, but it also gains a Pinned marker to indicate its overextended and somewhat precarious status. When a model with a Pinned marker activates, roll a number of combat dice equal to the model's Cool stat to remove the Pinned marker. Any Special results rolled removes the Pinned marker with no further effect and is classed as a free action. If the roll is unsuccessful, the activating model must use a single Shake It Off action to remove the marker before doing anything else.
I placed three red Star chips for Team Alpha and five black Star chips for the Stix Brothers into my Nerd Herd bag. Turn 1 could now begin.

The game only lasted one turn but seeing as it was such a long turn I'll cover it in its entirety in my next post in a few days time. Don't miss it!