Games with Peds You Have Played

[MattV]

I'd love to hear some stories of your favorite games you have played with Peds involved. What you liked, what you didn't. How did it go.

Anyone game any arena duels using peds?

[MazeMonster]

Years ago, I ran a game where a small team of cybernetically upgraded pedestrians (using the rules from ADQ7/4) took on a team of Division 5 and 10 vehicles on the Midville Map. The Peds pulled out a marginal victory. Gyrosluggers and tripod mounted machine gus carried the day.

[swordtart]

My most memorable engagement was when 12 pedestrians took on an 18-wheeler, a trike and a compact.

2 snipers armed with telescopic rifles with hollow-point ammo. 1 is the leader (who also has a clip of anti-personnel ammunition to kill anyone stupid enough to get out of their vehicles).
2 Grenadiers armed with ABV with explosive and paint grenades also with the command wires for some pedestrian dischargers concealed at the roadside.
2 heavy weapon specialists with telescoped Anti-vehicular rifles.
6 dragoons armed with assault rifles with extended magazines and laser scopes.

All peds have 2 smoke grenades to cover an escape. They also have short range radios (because everyone in CW knows what everyone is doing).

They also have 2 pickups that have only light armour and a pair of mine droppers each for transport driven by a non-combatant (1 a medic, the other a mechanic)

A spotter has identified a small convoy heading for an abandoned town. A light trike as front man, a rig with a flatbed and a compact tail-end Charlie. The mobile infantry are standing by in the pickups ready to deploy at short notice (other traffic has been through the area within the last 5 minutes and reported all-clear). The ambush site is near a school where the main highway (2 lanes each way) is intersected by a single lane cross roads. One of the side roads is rubble strewn but navigable.

The peds roll into an abandoned town in the two pickups. All but the AVR troops get out of the trucks.

Trucks run 4 lines of mines up one leg of main road (past the cross roads, and so where the rig is planning to go).

Leader deploys into a high point close to the centre of the crossroads (behind a brick chimney on top of a boiler house). From here he will coordinate the engagement.

The other sniper deploys by the side of the road opposite the mines ready to fire once the target has driven past him. He also has a couple of paint grenade to help things along.

The grenadiers set up a few pedestrian oil dischargers and paint dischargers (placed to put a 2" long line of paint and oil right across the road) and hide behind a wall on either side of the mined road.

The dragoons deploy prone in rubble cover and 6DP ruined walls around the crossroads.

The pickups with the AVR gunners lying in the bed, hide off the mined leg of the road and the non-rubble strewn side road. They are facing backward ready to reverse round the corner to give the AVR gunner clear LOS up the roads.

When the convoy turns up, they spot the mines immediately and send forward the trike to scout ahead at speed. He quickly identifies the non-rubble side road as the best option for the rig, but while he is checking the oil and paint dischargers are fired and he comes under fire from well concealed dragoons (-5 to hit from the front but with rubble all round). With the oil adding to the Hazard of each hit he is quickly at -6 and fishtailing badly.

The truck decides to turn round and while it is slowing the sniper tosses a paint grenade which easily hits it.

The compact only has a rear firing weapon as it is the tail-end Charlie and decides to try to move to the front ready to cover the withdrawl.

The trike which only has a pair of side mounted MMLs with AP ammo is having difficulty targeting the peds. With no burst effect he is reliant on a direct hit. After several shots he has managed to hit only once and failed to penetrate the BA + ABV of the dragoons. He finally scores his first kill with a double tap on the third turn of sustained fire. Unfortunately now he has to switch target and start building up the sustained fire from scratch. Every turn two more paint grenades from the grenadiers drop into the crossroads at some random point.

Meanwhile the AR troops have also built up sustained fire and they don't need to change targets. Every hit chips away at trikes HS until the trike is permanently on -6. A few fishtails and his aimed fire goes completely down the toilet. His movement is further cramped by the oil and paint and he is ordered to take advantage of his off-road capability and flee up the rubble strewn road.

Meanwhile the compact has arrived and tries to use the burst effect of it's rear mounted RL to mess up the peds, he at least only needs to hit the ground to catch them. The peds are using cover effectively however and he needs to target the rubble behind them to catch them in the blast. He arrives just in time to become a target for the AVR gunner up the non-rubble strewn side road.

The truck is trying to turn round at this point, taking regular wheel guard hits and the odd tire hit from the sniper and now being engaged by the AVR gunner who has reversed round the corner and is firing at over 16" down the mined road. With the telescopic sight this penalty is reduced such that he can still plausibly target the trucks front tires once he has got his sustained fire. The trucks wheel hubs of course wont protect from frontal attacks. With only a twin VMG turret from the truck he is a pretty small target (either -5 to hit directly) or blast through the relatively heavy rear armour of the pickup. With the range and the paint it's a pretty big ask and so, in frustration, the truck targets the lower threat sniper and misses him.

The rig also has a front mounted GL and this starts firing smoke grenades to try to cover the retreat, but every-time the truck moves in turning round, it clears it's own smoke. The grenades are also going very far astray as the paint on the truck is making the to hit roll too difficult.

A few seconds later and the its is looking very dicey for the vehicles. The trike and compact are both running at -6 HS permanently and have been hit with paint from the grenadiers who are randomly tossing grenades over the wall from full concealment and are being nibbled to death by many AR hits. The truck is wallowing back and forth trying to turn and taking solid wheel hits that have started penetrating the hubs and guards. Both AVRs are now hitting consistently. The VMGs have at least managed to kill the sniper though.

In desperation in being unable to kill anything the trike driver decides to toss a grenade out of the window at a dragoon that is breaking cover. He manages to drop it under the seat (very bad luck). Miraculously he survives the blast, but his BA is not so lucky and all his internal components are damaged to some extent (none terminally).

Some of the ARs that were out of arc, have now manoeuvred round and are able to target the wheels of the rig that now have very little of their hubs and guards left.

At this point the bug out order is given. But the trucker desperate to salvage something from the fiasco decides to pick up the sniper rifle he can see on the dead bandit barely 30 feet from the truck. He drops from the truck and using at as cover while his co-driver completes the turn, he makes it to the snipers position. While he is collecting the rifle, the commander slips in his anti-ped ammo and takes careful aim. As the trucker leaves cover to break for the truck he comes under fire from the commander and is hit on the third shot whilst stationary to climb aboard destroying his BA and ABV.

Terrified of a second hit on his unprotected body he dives onto the truck and safety. Desperately he regains his seat to find he has lost a front wheel, has no hub on the other and is still only travelling at 5 mph, but at least now in the right direction. He hits the panic button on the rear FOJ and smokescreens to completely obscure his retreat.

The trike makes it away with damage to it's tires from the rubble and 50% of it's armour chipped away plus quite a lot of internal damage from the grenade.

The compact turns tail and threads away between some ruined buildings into some parkland and away. This prevents the majority of the ARs from shooting at him, but a couple are in position to pepper his behind as he flees slewing all over the place. By the time he breaks clear there is only a single DP on his RL between him and the angels. He has lost almost 100 points of armour overall, 60 of them off the rear.

The bandits do not pursue. The AVRs are changing mags (and so would need to build up sustained fire and the truck is getting further away), the ARs only had a couple of rounds left as well so pressing the battle would have been non-optimal (besides I thought the players needed a break).

The bandits were angling to cut out an escort, they almost got the whole convoy. If they had got a few more AR bursts onto the other wheel they would have brought the truck to a halt. The escorts were in no position to return for it.

The rig and escorts cost $100,000 or so. The bandits budget was a fraction of that. They burned a few grand in ammunition and so this attack was unsustainable in the longer term. They suffered 2 killed and lost a few guns. The rig and escorts repairs and replenishment ran to almost 10K.

The players beat themselves up about this but actually other than getting out for the rifle, they didn't do too badly. Their mistakes may even have saved them to an extent. If they had played the numbers they may have sacrificed an escort, but by everyone almost being breached, no-one actually was. Their "innovative" tactical decision making meant the bandits had to abandon a well laid out ambush and flexibly engage.

The player might have "not lost" by accident, and any fight you can drive away from is a win.

[Blue Ghost]

My side armor on my in house designs was beefy, but I usually only put a point or two on top or bottom, counting on my driving skills to avoid dropped weapons.

One time, for some reason, I had to stop my van in an arena (I think I was trying to take cover behind some flaming wreck).

My friend's car had been gutted, but he (the driver) escaped, and was within throwing distance of my van. My autogunner took a shot at him with the turret (a Vulcan I think), but missed.

I wasn't too concerned, I was more worried about the car on the other side of the wreckage, and was wondering if I should throw my van in reverse, or gun it and swing around that wreckage with my forward guns a blazing.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Mister pedestrian rolled a grenade underneath my van ... >:)

I even told him "You don't want to do that ..." Is there something in the rules for trying to coax a player out of an action? Because I was guilty right then and there.

But, being the independent thinker that he was, he did it anyway. ... >:)

And to his surprise, scored internals. ... >:)

And then he did it again. ... >:)

And yes, the vulcan missed again.

Now, maybe I and my friends misread the rules. Maybe I've been playing this game wrong for 30+ years of my life. But at the time I didn't recall a minimum armor requirement for any side, so I took advantage of that, and beefed up my sides. True, the GM tended to throw in a helicopter every now and then, but I usually gambled that I wasn't the target if it suddenly appeared. I was wrong one time ... >:)

But that Ped and his grenades will go down in history as to why I no longer use that design scheme and no longer drive a van with heavy front armament.

Thank you.

[juris]

We allowed ped weapons in Am Night (at the driver's cost). A ped with a SMG is pretty dangerous to a Killer Kart, especially using their own destroyed vehicle as cover. Other than that peds are useless, especially against burst-effect weapons (you don't even need to hit them). A good ped costs about $1000 and can be taken out by two burst effect rounds almost every time. A really good ped jumps to $2500 because of the excessive cost of IBA and isn't that much better. Just buy a cycle.

The best ped weapon by far is the ped-GL with impact fuses, but again its mostly a nuisance weapon.

As a side note there's a special rules for bailing out of vehicles off-road (it's much safer). A lot of times people would swerve off road and bail out of a flaming vehicle before it could explode...

[swordtart]

A ped in an arena with no cover is pretty useless.

A ped in cover with an AVR can be more than just a nuisance.

A ped in cover with a linked pair of AP heavy rockets on a tripod (preferably laser guided from his laser targeting scope) can be lethal (especially if that scope is IR and he has IR goggles and can get his two ranging shots without you even knowing he is there).

For giggles a ped with 6 minirockets on a tripod is pretty cheap and if one of those MNR is a smoke round, he even covers his own position on firing.

[swordtart]

After the players got back from the ambush they ran into some rtouble with a local warlord who agreed to let them off in exchange for their help punishing someone who had stolen a rig of his (the same bandits who had attacked the players).

They agreed and took part in a night assault on a meeting between the bandits and a local cycle gang (swapping stolen gasahol for weapons).

The players drove a rig with lots of metal armour, and a quad MG turret oulling a metal armoured van trailer with quad turrets and with 20 infantry firing from loop holes inside. It also had plasticores because infantry can be hell on tires. To save cost they were bald (rubber gone so they were only 30% of list price - but the tuck was at -1 HC)

There were some bandits and cyclists outside conducting the deal, but the majority of bandits were in a couple of car van trailers concealed inside a barn (in case of a double cross by the cycle gang). The cycle gang were mostly distributed in wood and corrugated iron buildings near their rides loafing while the deal was transacted.

Before they arproached the compound some ex-special forces types took up strategic positions around the compound to provide precision support with silenced rifles with hollow points (and rifle concussion grenades).

The trucks crashes the compound gate and at the same time sentries are eliminated by the Special-ops. The gate is predictably mined but also has a glow-in-the-dark paint grenade rigged to it and a remotely triggered serachlight pointed at it. So for the first few turns the truck cannot shoot effectively, is driving blind, doesn't have a single tire with more 8 DPs and is suddenly the most obvious target in the world.

There are two sidecar combinations (classis ww2 german sidecar stylee with pintle MG) They start shooting at the truck tires but their own tires come under fire from virtually invisible special ops rifle fire.

Several bikers boil out of the buldings heading for 4 light trikes parked outside. Unseen round in an alley between two buildings the gang leader and his 2ic (plus their dedicated gunners) start a pair of extra heavy trikes with triple linked RLs. Other head to five light cycles each with 6 front mounted linked minirockets.

There are a couple of minivan trailers (that were towed by the extra heavy trikes) equipped with a rear sponson vulcan gun and dedicated gunner that are parked near the main gate and at the opposite side of the compound who start chipping away at the rigs metal armour. Several peds (pillion riders on the light bikes) also open up from cover of the buildings with ARs, SMG and at leat one AVR. There is also a ped with a tripod and 6 linked minirockets on the corner of a building who having let off his volley (to little effect against the metal armour) is patiently reloading (6 turns). There are also a couple of poorly armed pickups that are there solely to transport the fuel.

The bandits holed up in the barn open up with ARs and a couple of grenade lauchers. Meanwhile they have two pickups with RRs front and turreted MGs that were parked in the comound. These start yammering on the rig as well. They are untargettable by the special-ops guys and so the bikers take the brunt of the attack.

Once the rig stabilises its 3 quad MG turrets start chewing up the vehciles while the AR equipped peds in the van start firing out of ports at whatever is closest. The special ops guys fire several concussion grenades at the exposed bikers and knock a few out (including all but one of the ones trying for the cycles).

Meanwhile the rig is loosing tires fast, but is lucky to keep at least one front tire and so stay mobile. The metal armour is very slowly being stripped from the passenger side of the rig, the VMG in the trailer being very effective in this regard.

When the rig finally looses it's last front tire it grinds to a halt. By now most of the light trikes have been either sideswiped or machine-gunned through the top armour and half are burning. The extra heavy trikes have put a lot of hurt on the driver side as the truck "crossed the T", but have had less effect on the van trailer. All but one of the bikes are sitting unmanned and with the drivers gone the pillion passengers have no reason to venture near them. The sole manned bike is totalled by the tractors Quad MG at point blank range (each MG managing to strike a different internal component). AR fire from the peds in the trailer has ruined one of the pickups and fire from the special ops has whittled down the bikers.

Within a few rounds some VMG fire pentrates the passenger side armour of the tractor, strikes the powerplant and by fluke sets it on fire. At this point the players bail out of the rig and try for the buildings but are caught in the blast of a random grenade and are rendered unconcious.

When they come too the warlords troops have abandoned the trailer and have stormed all the buildings but the barn. The special forces have managed to knock out the mini-vans with the VMGs and the bikers have routed. The two extra heavy trikes have made it out scot free, but all their other vehicles have been captured or are burning.

The bandits in their barn are still resolute, undamaged and one of the pickups has made it back to the rear of the barn. After an impasse the bandits flee in their trialer towed by the pickup laying smoke the whole way. As the warlords troops are running low on ammo they let them go.

Despite all the vehciles, this was still largely a pedestrian combat. Of the 60 or so combatants only a dozen or so were in vehicles (they all arrived in vehicles, they just never managed to get back into them before it all went pear shaped).

[MattV]

Swordtart, How you pull games like that off amazes me. I'd have to study the rules for a while just to feel comfortable.

Do you actually move each ped each phase? I'm thinking of changing that and make it phase 1 and 3 to.

[swordtart]

I have the benefit of doing it over facebook. The map is updated digitally (so no counters to blow away) and I use Inkscape so I can easily move the counter whilst leaving everything else. Phases can be processed over days or even weeks (so I have plenty of time to look things up).

Generally if the peds are set up properly, they don't tend to move. Stationary and braced is worth +2 to hit, you don't want to throw that away every turn. If they are prone and in cover (very sensible) it will take them a turn to get up when they can't fire. If you loose your LOS it is usually better to just wait and see if another opportunity opens up.

In the first scenario only the trucker and half a dozen of the peds actually changed position 9and only the trucker was Player operated). In the second the majority of peds were either in a trailer of one type or another and so were not explicitly depicted (I just took the positions of them to be every 1/4 inch on the trailer counter), the remainder were in buildings and if they did move, it tended to be only once (as they were then generally killed or incapacitated). Only once the rig caught fire did a player move a character. I have a simple algorithm to dictate how NPCs peds operate (to keep me honest) that I have reality checked in slow time to speed up decision making when the fight starts.

1) Get prone in cover (do this before the fight preferably).
2) Don't move unless you have to.
3) Identify target with widest possibly LOS. If that is too hard choose the one you have the best chance of hitting.
4) Fire at that same target until it is either defeated or moves out of LOS.
5) If you loose LOS find another target using rule 3.
6) If you cannot find a target change your clip instead.
7) If you have a fresh clip and cannot find a target see if you can do something useful with a grenade.
8) If you still cannot find anything to do relax and stay put. We are either winning and you have done your bit, or we are loosing and your contribution is only reinforcing failure.
9) If you are in immediate danger of certain death and have nothing to contribute you may consider retreating along your planned extraction route to your fall back position dropping smoke to cover you go back to 1.

Once people have started firing they generally tend to fire as soon as possible in the next turn, ordinarily this would be in the first phase, but we have rolling 5 phase turns (so a particular shooter may always end up firing on phase 3).

Actually as I list the actions in the phases not changing targets or times of firing is easy as I just copy and paste the firing instruction from the previous turn. Often these are largely unchanged from turn to turn and it saves me retyping stuff (and recalculating stuff, if the only thing that has change is a range then I can just add or deduct the relevant number from the to hit number calculated from last turn). This means that later phases are often far quicker to process and often we can gloss over a number of phases in a turn.

Peds are actually a bit easier as at least you don't have to keep track of handling class and speed.

Other simple rules are to keep your peds equipment simple. It is far easier to identify an appropriate target is you have an AR, SMG or even AVR. GLs are fiddly as you have to decided where to place it, roll for scatter, keep track of it until it detonates etc.

Give each ped a role and a single weapon for that role. If you ped is carrying several weapons you will spend all the time switching between them and deciding which is optimal. By the time you get swapped you may find you have to change targets again.

Give all peds a smoke grenades for covering a retreat and a couple of paint grenades for diversity. Preferably place them rather than throwing them. If you put a smoke grenade on the floor you cannot miss. Paint you will have to throw unless you want to mess up your own targeting.

Don't bother with better than BA. A 6 DP wall is far better than 6DP of body armour as it is free, won't weigh you down and when it gets ablated, you just need to move to another section. The only exception is specialist grenadiers, they should have a battle vets as well to enable then to throw a grenade every turn.

A word or two on grenades, don't use explosive or concussion grenades unless you have a GL, there is too much danger of them landing in your lap or a colleague. I prefer rifles with rifle grenade adaptors. They are almost as good as grenade launchers, but you can use them for self-defence. I generally prefer hand grenadiers (as they are cheaper). Give them a pistol to give them an option if they are faced with a pedestrian. Give them paint grenades in the battle vest (they can carry a couple of smoke grenades to cover retreat in standard pouches). Use paint as it doesn't hang around as long as smoke and you will inevitably drop one in the wrong place, no sense in allowing that mistake to linger.

Try to keep every peds encumbrance the same so you don't have to keep track of who is moving. This may mean heavy weapon soldiers would have no armour. I compensate for this by setting them up from or even in vehicles. All ped gangs should have a few pickups as otherwise they won't get their loot home.

[Racer]

I wish we could of had you in charge of the Infantry during our 2009/10 Military campaign Swordtart . A number of grenades dropped on them by AGLs and they tended go to pieces ... and missing a Hummer at point blank range with a Heavy Bazooka didn't help their tactics ... or moral either ...