A Desert T.H.R.E.A.T.

A band of fearless law officers have pursued a gang of merciless thieves to this desolate outpost in the Bone Counties (called the Home Counties before the Fall). Little do they know that these vicious “scavengers” have managed to reactivate a Fallen artifact – a battle tank!

Whitecliff City Law Officers

Captain Ana Kane, Quality 4 Lone Wolf

Two Light Support Vehicles with machine guns, Quality 4 Vehicles

2x 3 Officers, Quality 3 Squads

Bone County Burglars

5 Lone Wolves: Colonel Slaughter, Lucy Thorn, Wolf Arson, Jackson Claw and Madjack “Crazy” Loon, Q3.

13 goons in three Gangs (4, 4, 5), Quality 2.

Fallen battle tank, Q2

Victory Conditions

1pt per dead Law Officer

3pts per Law vehicle destroyed

1pt per scavenger gang dispersed or Lone Wolf killed

2pts per scavenger Lone Wolf seized in CQB

10pts if Fallen tank seized in CQB

Recon Phase & Deployment

The scouting duel ended up giving both sides a sort of “chevron” for their deployment zones. Captain Kane stayed with one of her patrols, and the scavenger heroes also bolstered their gangs – except the Colonel and Madjack. With blips and vehicles deployed, it was time to play!

Infantry are just blips on the radar until they're spotted.

The Game

Yells sounded across the rockfield as the first law officers were spotted. The LSVs roared to life and chugged forward as scavengers – or civilians – ran here and there. The first exchange of fire saw two scavvies go down,

As the two sides began to advance in earnest, the LSVs showed their worth, scything through scavvies with their heavy machine guns – but they couldn't kill Lucy Thorn! With blood on her teeth she laughed as her men died around her, and limped away into the desert. Return fire from heavy rifles in the fort immobilised one of them too. And at the far end of the field, an ominous rumble spurted into life...

An LSV assaults on the Law's left flank.

Lucy Thorn's lucky escape.

The tank appears at the end of the highway.

Accurate rifle fire forced the crew of the immobilised LSV to bail out, halving the patrol's heavy firepower in one fell swoop. Lucky for them – the awakened battle tank's main gun blew it up not ten seconds later. Captain Kane and the other LSV caught Wolf Arson and his men in a deadly crossfire and sent them all to Kingdom Gone.

The first LSV takes a main gun shell straight on.

Jackson Claw and his men fled their little fort, leaving Colonel Slaughter to rage impotently behind them. The surviving LSV dashed into cover, while Captain Kane plotted her next move. The gang they had been sent to catch were dispersed – but now there was a tank to deal with – a tank which had just blown up her second LSV! Things were desperate now. Her patrol was stranded in the Bone Counties with no transport home, and a clearly lethal Fallen artifact in the hands of villains. It was time for an all-or-nothing attempt to seize the tank!

Her decision to be heroic was interrupted by the frothing appearance of Madjack “Crazy” Loon, swinging a serrated knife in her face! Forgotten in the horror of the tank's appearance, this melty-faced madman had been psyching himself up watching his friends die, and was determined to wreak revenge! Although the Captain injured him with her nightstick, he still gutted two officers in the time it takes to draw breath!

Although outnumbered, Madjack is VERY dangerous!

Noticing that Jackson and his men were loitering behind him at the foot of the wall, Colonel Slaughter ran down with his trusty dog to scare them into shape. The tank trundled towards Captain Kane as she and Madjack continued their deadly dance of death. Neither of them could get the upper hand until Kane's surviving bodyguard came up behind him and broke his neck. No arrest was worth the lives of two officers, not out here.

Kane and her bloody-visored officer looked at each other, at the bodies of their comrades, at each other once again, and charged the tank.

We are the Law!

 

The captain leapt up the titan's armour, ignoring the scream behind her. She unlocked the turret hatch and threw her whole grenade pouch inside. A shot from her peacefinder pistol, a jump to cover, and a super-heated whoosh! blew up through the air behind her. The tank was neutralised.

Things went back to SOP after that. The delta team came in from the right and supported Kane's peacefinder volleys against Colonel Slaughter's counter-attack. Jackson Claw and several known associates perished in a hail of bolts, and Colonel Slaughter fled into the wastes to avoid lawful custody. All that remained was to wait in the hot sun for a helicopter to come and collect the four surviving law officers, and hope that this wouldn't look too bad in her report...

Final Tally

Law Officers: 15 Victory Points. Casualties: six law officers, two Light Support Vehicles.

Scavengers: 9 Victory Points. Casualties: 13 scum, Jackson Claw, Wolf Arson and Madjack “Crazy” Loon (or is he really dead..?). Escapees: Colonel Slaughter and Lucy Thorn.

Man of the Match: Fallen Artifact Battle Tank. It killed two LSVs and a law officer with three shots, and scared the hell out of the Law until Captain Kane took it out with a heroic assault on the hatch.

After-Thoughts

Once again, T.H.R.E.A.T. played very smoothly. It was the first playtest of the recon phase, which went very well (I think!) and gave a slightly less than conventional deployment zone, which is what it was designed for. The Law's softskins went up in flames before the Fallen tank's B.F.G., which was also appropriate (if gutting). Madjack's monstrously high Vitality, which turned far too many kills into injury over the course of the game, made him quite the serial-killer scaremonger. The great white hunter Colonel Slaughter rolled nothing but 1s all game, so clearly he has an ironic title!