The Muster leader, Emeritas Hughes, gets more than he bargained for in this exciting mission carrying on the campaign started in the main Firefight 2.0 rulebook.
"Tray Served Snack"
Happy Burger Mission Arc - Mission 2
A Firefight 2.0 scenario for two players by Gavin Syme.
The Muster leader, Emeritas Hughes, gets more than he bargained for in this exciting mission carrying on the campaign started in the main Firefight 2.0 rulebook.
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‘Hi There!’
‘Pleased ta meet ya!’
Emeritas Hughes signalled stop to his three fellow mustermen and as one they looked at the strange contraption which had blocked their way. None of them raised their weapons as this robot was plainly no threat infact Hughes had seen them before but never in operating condition in Zone 17. The robot spoke on;
‘Say I sure would like to get your order for some Jolly Fries and maybe a couple of Smiley Bee Burgers too. But for now all I can offer you lovely folks are some self colour pads for the kiddies as the kitchen HB’s seem to be offline. Want em?’
With that the robot stuck out one three fingered lurid yellow hand and offered several tiny child sized view pads to the soldiers. None of them moved and after a few seconds each longer seeming than the last the HB robot withdrew its hand and placed both hands on its torso where a human would have hips and spoke again.
‘Awww! You guys must sure be tired or grouchy not to want some fun from old Happy. Say would you like something from my beverage dispenser? Its on the house of course as I seem to have run out of ice and sippy straws too.’
Hughes growled under his breath. They were exposed here in the street and this droid was trying to act out a programme that was long past being the right course of action. As the robot dilated a hatch open in its chest and produced four large throwboard beakers he looked past it and towards the drive in Happy Burger restaurant behind it. Hughes popped the breather seal on his helm and removed it from his head. He spoke;
‘Hold up Happy. I am sure that my men and I would much prefer a cold drink from your ice dispenser inside. We would pay for it of course we have coin.’
The robot stopped, it was midway through filling the second beaker with an amber coloured liquid called ‘Smile Brew’ that was very popular among the Canlaster ranks. It hesitated and looked at the glass doors and windows of the restaurant.
‘I don’t know sir. I work out here with the children and my manager hasn’t beeped me with those instructions. I think we are open but my programme cannot tell me for sure.'
As Hughes considered this Happy suddenly dropped the beakers and closed his chest cavity. It pushed gently past the mustermen and waddled off down the blasted road surface his fixed smile in place and then his tinny voice on speaker mode boomed out.
‘Jeez sir. I am sorry but you can’t park your nifty skimmer here this is a kiddy play zone. Please move it round the front into the bays. Its free and I will be glad to direct you.’
The mustermen turned and gaped in horror. It was not a speeder that the robot was waving to, trying to direct it out of the way of a play zone that was no longer fit for children, it was something far more dangerous.
Hughes slammed his helm back into its neck seals of his Alwite armour and as one the soldiers ran away from Happy and moments later cannoned into the front of the Happy Burger branch and flung themselves at the windows. Ambush!
Now that it was within a few feet the robot raised its hands ready to direct the new comer to the assigned parking bays. Always helpful Happy would do his job even if the other robots did not answer his messages.
‘Sir, follow me please. That’s right come ahead and pass me, its on your left. I like your skimmer; what pattern is it? Does it go fas...’
It never finished the sentence. The skimmer reached Happy before he could. A sphere of grey metal led onto any movement it could find. It was no skimmer...it was an Air Mine. A lethal self guided weapon of the Yordist alliance.
For a moment the dull sky was lit white and it rained lurid yellow smoking plastic in Zone 17.
Setup
Assemble your Battlegrounds as shown here. Place your cover scenic tiles approximately as shown by the white squares and your Player 1 (P1) and Player 2 (P2) characters on squares as shown by the ‘starting placement’ designed icons for each player.
The Mission and Its Aims
This mission requires you have to a copy of IAG001 Firefight 2.0 Killing Streets for the rules of Firefight. You will also need some Ion Age miniatures both Muster and Retained which you can find on the Alternative Armies website. The miniatures supplied with the Killing Streets game pack are suited exactly to this mission.
This mission can be played on its own but it does follow on exactly from the end of the first mission in the Happy Burger arc which can be found in issue one of Barking Irons magazine. Additionally this mission is well suited to solo play if you desire to do away with the second player and give the Yordist forces over to a solo engine.
This is a mission for two players with player one taking the role of the Canlaster mustermen squad led by Emeritas Hughes and player two taking the role of the ambushing Yordists and their air mines.
The objective of this mission for player one is to defeat the ambush and to eradicate the air mines and their commander.
The objective of this mission for player two is to kill off the Canlaster men using the airmines and to avoid getting the Yordist Retained Varlet in command of them killed in turn.
This mission is not time sensitive and comes to an end with the explosion of the last air mine. The winner is simply the player with the highest number of characters left alive and in play. If it is a draw then the Canlaster player is declared the winner.
You must obey any and all listed special rules during play when they apply.
Begin play with the first Turn as normal.
Player One - Baroness Margrette of Canlaster IV
You have 65 Points to assemble a Squad of Muster troops. You must have four characters, you may not have any Heavy Weapons troops or Heavy Weapons either. All four of your character must be armed with a projectile (P) type weapon and you may not field any Retained troops.
Place them on P1’s starting places.
You have free choice of allocating starting place for each character.
Player Two - Baron Thunderset of Yordan III
You have a special force at your disposal which consists, in the main of air mines, along with a commander. You have six air mines and one Retained Varlet with comms skill and an Angis 12.5mm Rifle. You may not change this allocation or the weapons of the character. You may not field any other troops.
Air Mines can be represented by scratch built miniatures however you can use the card tokens in the Killing Streets set of Firefight 2.0 to represent them in play.
Place them on P2’s starting places.
You have free choice of mine or character in each starting place.
Special Rules and Conditions
There are some special rules for this mission. Please read these special rules and apply them in your playing of Firefight for this mission.
Special Rule One - Comms Skill
The mustermen of Canlaster may elect to take up to two characters with the Comms Skill as per page 15 of the Killing Streets booklet. This skill works as normal however it may NOT be used in turn one because this is an ambush mission.
Special Rule Two - Death of Emeritas Hughes
During play if Emeritas Hughes is killed then keep a note of it if you are playing further missions in the arc as it will affect the characters allowance for the next mission for the player.
Death of Hughes in Mission One - If you have played mission one in the Happy Burger arc and are continuing on with this mission you must take into account if Hughes died in that last mission. If he did die then roll 1D6 per Canlaster character once the game is set up for turn one of play. On a result of 5 or 6 that character is marked ‘Turn Done’ for the first turn of play. Quite a problem I am sure you will agree!
Special Rule Three - Yordists are the Mine Men!
At no point during play will an air mine consider the Yordan character in play a valid target. He cannot blow himself up!
Get a Mine on! - While the Yordist character is alive and in play and DOES NOT make a move action in a turn all the air mines in play will move TWO squares a turn not the usual ONE square per turn. In all other aspects the mine acts as normal on page 15 of the Killing Streets booklet.
Activate, Activate - On turn one of the game all the air mines are deployed and are considered active as a result of the ambush.
Expanding the Mission
This mission is part of a mission arc and should be played along with the other missions in the arc in the correct order. You can expand this mission and scale it up if you fancy a challenge or you are not playing it as part of the Happy Burger arc.
Firstly you must double the playing area by adding more road tiles leading away from the Happy Burger parking bays and sidewalk tiles along both edges of that road. After this you can add a second musterman squad of four characters to assist Hughes. These mustermen can only be armed with Moth Type 6 rifles and a couple of Hobbs Bombs, no heavy weapons. They may also not have the Comms Skill.
To balance this out you should also add two more air mines and also the rest of a lance of Yordist Retained adding to the character already in play. These Retained may not have heavy weapons and ARE subject to being targeted by the air mines if they near them as per the rules.
Mission Linkage
This is the second mission in the Happy Burger arc and as such you should play the previous mission first for continuity. You can find the first mission in issue one of the Barking Irons magazine.
Designer's Notes
This mission is the second in an arc that will see Emeritas Hughes, squad commander, progress to gaining his Majoris command over a whole platoon of Muster troopers through his outstanding ability in combat to grab victory from the dung heap of defeat. Those of you who already have the IAG001 Firefight 2.0 The Killing Streets booklet will know of the exploits of Emeritas Hughes of old. He features in the four beginners missions out of the eight missions provided in that set. The Happy Burger mission arc follows on pretty much straight after the ending of ‘Parking for Pain’ on page 24 of the Killing Streets booklet in the murderous battle for Zone 17. More missions in the arc will follow in these very pages.
In terms of the designers’ notes for this mission, the second in the Happy Burger arc, here are my thoughts on it.
When you look into the faces of your enemy you can judge them, sort them and know them...this can give you victory. But when its you and your Moth rifle against silent floating spiky balls of doom then its downright scary. The mines will come on and its just a question of can you shoot them down before they blow you up!
In our own play testing of this mission at Alternative Armies we discovered, as you will, how intimidating it is to have to fend off air mines. There was a pretty good chance that one or more of the mines would reach the mustermen and turn them into a gooey mess. We got around this by two methods. Firstly ‘alpha strike’, sending our fire actions as combinations on one mine at a time, the closest one. This kept the mines away. Secondly using the comms skill to halt the mines advance and then sending one poor sod forward to attempt to kill the Yordist character and thereby win the game in the long term and slow the mines in the short term. Good luck!
Next Time in Bosworth Zone 17
Next time we leave the side of the plucky Emeritas for a short while to bring you other Firefight missions elsewhere on New Bosworth. Do not fret though he will return in the third instalment of the Happy Burger arc when it will be time to bite down on the meat that the Yordists have tried to choke him on!
See you all there for more out of the box... Happy Burger fun!
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Webmaster's Notes
This article was originally published on Barking Irons Online and is reproduced here with permission.
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