[Wargames 5150] Gaea's Worst: Batting Clean-Up (Pt III)

After the storm, the flood.

Thankfully for me, this is going to be a very graphics-light post.

After the exciting events of the last mission, the failed patrol which ended in a heroic last stand followed by quite a bit of running away, there is some definite bookkeeping that needs to happen.

• We've lost three out of four crew and the entirety of the Spectacular Craptacular.

• The one survivor of the crew fled the field.

• The good tank Chicken Scratch was utterly disabled.

• Luckily the crew of the Chicken Scratch got away completely unharmed.

• Don't Drop That Baby engaged the enemy and retreated from the battlefield intact, despite having the least experience of anyone in the group.

Two vehicles, most of one crew, and a failed mission. Plus the crew of the Chicken Scratch probably deserves to be statted up.

Let's get on that.

Replacing Crewmembers

Please turn to page 26 in the hymnal.

First up, we look to see if people who have bailed out of the disabled vehicle or are Out of the Fight return. I suppose it's theoretically possible that the crew of the Scratch might think better of whether or not they want to be part of a planetary defense force that set them up to fail like that, so let's find out.

All of the crew members were REP 4, which will make this easy.

Oh – right. Since I don't have Tabletop Simulator up and running, I'll have to use actual, real dice. Which is fine because I have the usual GM Dice Bag which is made out of one of those zippered bags that entire sets of sheets come in. And it's quite full.

After the Battle Recovery of Scratch's Crew

Each of them had the same REP, which will help a lot here. While were at it, we'll give them some names and maybe some Attributes for the ones that are going to return.

Actually, it looks like I'm going to have to edit their 3 x 5 cards anyway – so time to start up TS!

Here we go, one at a time:

• TC: 6, 4, so pass 1. He'll come back but at REP 3.

  CPL Andrew Windglass, from the old Windglass family on Steinler. He has just finally seen too much in the last battle and he's jumpy like a cat. He feels like he'll be okay just so long as he can stay away from those other bullet-traps.

  Attribute: Initiative: Counts one Rep higher (5) for Activation purposes when operating alone.

• Driver: 3, 2, pass 2. Coming bback at full REP 4.

  SGT Hau Min, the scrappy guy that kicked ass to get out of high school with shitty grades just good enough so that he could join the PDF like his dear ol' dad. And get away from his domineering mother. He always was good with a long arm. Any skinnies that pop up in front of his MG are going to have a bbad day.

  Attribute: Marksman: Counts Rep at one level higher when firing Main Gun, Machine Gun, or Grenade Launcher.

• Gunner: 5, 5 -- and he drops out of the conflict. In coming years he can be found alone, sitting at the bar, drinking too much, and bitching about how his girl and his dog left him.

  He'll need a replacement.

  PVT Angel Chi, 5'11, willowy, built like a ballet dancer, smiles like her namesake, and only has five confirmed hand-to-hand kills with Hishen soldiers who thought they could overrun her position to show for it. A cold-blooded killer behind any gun.

  REP 4. Attribute: Marksman: Counts Rep at one level higher when firing Main Gun, Machine Gun, or Grenade Launcher.

• Loader: 2,1, and he's our boy ongoing.

  PVT Simone Granger, so she's our girl, in actual fact. Burly, butch, and she likes her men shorter and slightly more effeminate than she -- but that's not hard. The Grangers were the "other side of the tracks" family for folks who already lived on the shady side of the tracks. Simone is too much a straight shooter to live down to their expectations.

  Attribute: Hard as Nails: Once during each Mission the character will treat its first Obviously Dead result as Out of the Fight instead.

After the Battle Replacement of Spectacular Craptacular's Crew

Of the Spectacular, only Henri survives. His 5,1 gives him two passes, which lets him return for the next Mission at full REP. After that amazing performance, he would be a complete fool not to return as platoon leader. It remains to be determined whether or not command was a fool for allowing him to continue as platoon leader.

The rest of the crew? We'll have to see.

• Driver: SGT Ninazu Anniepada, a man of broad girth and appetites and narrow affection for the grays. His little round glasses and broad round belly has earned him the nickname, "Buddha of Hishen Death."

  REP 4, Attribute: Near Sighted: Counts Rep at one less when firing the Main Gun.

• Gunner: PVT Dominic Weinreb, the most tourist-y tourist-looking guy that's ever toured a planet not his own. His camera dangles from one of his wrists at almost every moment and his affection for flowered tunics when off-duty is infuriating. Like most brainless tourists, luck seems to smile on him and keep him standing even in the worst parts of town.

  REP 4, Attribute: Hard as Nails: Once during each Mission the character will treat its first Obviously Dead result as Out of the Fight instead.

• Loader: CPL Pervis Houston. He's been in the corps as long as anyone who can remember Gaea's Worst being together and has both the long, white beard and the plethora of scars to prove it. Nobody quite knows why he hasn't been promoted up and out of a tanker squad on some piss-ant, backwater world – but here he is.

  REP 5, Attribute: Near Sighted: Counts Rep at one less when firing the Main Gun.

Replacing Rides

We've got two vehicles out of operation, and neither of them are recoverable since we lost that battlefield to the Hishen. That means we're going to need new rides from the motor pool.

Sometimes that's not a good thing.

Pool's Closed?

First we have to see if there are any vehicles in the motor pool ready to be deployed to us.

That requires 2d6 versus the REP of our platoon leader, which is still conveniently 5.

5, 2 gives us two passes, so there are vehicles available to bring us up to full strength.

Windglass' Ride

Now let's check out what we end up in.

What are Windglass' guys going to be riding around in?

The dice give us 5, 5 against his REP of 3 – which is passing zero. Apparently command doesn't have a lot of faith in the crew, even after their amazing stand at the end of the last mission. Maybe it's because Windglass seems to be cracking up.

We need to go see what vehicle in the motor pool has an even lower frontal Armor Rating than the next one underneath the Thunder.

And that there isn't one. So instead, Windglass is going to be stuck as the TC on a Sprint APC and one of his crew is going to be reassigned somewhere else.

On the positive side, this gives us an infantry AT team to try and get some attacks in on the enemy – and some general infantry squad support in case we need to do something a little smaller scale that doesn't take an entire platoon of tanks.

This might ultimately work out well for us, even if it doesn't work out so well for Windglass.

We'll have Angel Chi transfer down to the infantry squad riding in "Ol' Dirty Bastard". For the moment, she'll be handling the AT rocket launcher.

I hope she lives!

Henri's Ride

The Scratch has been replaced with the Bastard. What does Henri get?

I suppose getting a tank shot out from under you and your entire crew killed is not good for morale nor for command's trust in you. Poor Henri has been busted down to a Sprint as well!

One of his crew is going to get bumped as well, but since the Baby is still available and doesn't have a differentiated crew, they'll get transferred over there without too much difficulty.

On the positive side, that means we're carrying two thirds of an infantry platoon, which might not be great for going on the attack but is a damn fine thing for dug-in defensive positions

Final Re-Crewing

It could have been worse. We've gone from being a light tank platoon to a reinforced mechanical infantry platoon, which is no terrible thing – necessarily. Our organic antitank capacity has been hit pretty hard because the AT teams only carry an AT rocket launcher with an APR of 7, meaning that they are definitely going to have to try to get flanking shots on pretty much anything we're likely to go up against. We have one light tank left which has a little bit of punch and is now commanded by a REP 4 TC, so it can operate on its own off to the side without risking Activation too much.

No, this is a pretty decent situation you find yourself in.

Paying the Piper

Or it would be, if we didn't have to see if anyone gets a demotion or promotion as a result of that mission.

Luckily, it looks like only Henri has the chance of decreasing an REP as a result of that disastrous mission. 2d6 versus his REP of 5 shouldn't be hard to pass at least one.

Unfortunately for him, all he has to do is not roll a 1 – so he immediately rolls a 1. (I was even going to give him the benefit of the doubt on the can't die, so I rolled it again – and it came up 1 again.)

Henri goes from REP 5 to REP 4, and that is going to make a really big difference in the next battle.

Technically, only the crew of the Star is worthy of improving or decreasing REP, but the guys who crewed Chicken Scratch deserve their time in the sun – all except the Loader who didn't do anything. Everyone else in that crew actually qualifies for having experienced a successful mission.

We will just roll a d6 and compared to the current REP; if the die comes up higher, they go up to the next step.

Command is really pissed off about that failed patrol, even though they clearly revealed a superior force lying in wait, because nobody that was riding Scratch got an increase.

It could have been much worse.

Next Time on Gaea's Worst

Given our current set up, it might be in my best interest – or our best interest, as the case may be – to have command send Gaea's Worst out on a bit of a Defense Mission, making use of some of that mechanized infantry that we have going on.

They could probably use some heavy support from some platforms intended to do real damage. Who happen be piloted by mercenaries.

But before then, I need to clean up the board, put the tokens back in their boxes, and prepare for the next time that we spend around the table making fun of…

Gaea's Worst!

Acknowledgements

• 5150: Hammer & Anvil is the vehicle suppliment for the 5150: Star Army line of games.

• @not-a-bird still calls me out for writing not-a-novels.

• @lorilikes has a really weird affection for my writing.

• The Hungry will be putting in an appearance soon!

• Tabletop Simulator continues to be convenient beyond words.