The WoffBoot Chronicles: The Heist - Eschers vs All Comers

Been a while since we were down in the Underhive. All the new vehicle and wasteland rules seemed pretty cool to me, so B1llybob and I put together a short mini-campaign. Bob wants to learn how to play from scratch, I want to try out the new stuff, so we're going from zero to sixty over three short games!

To Escher is Human

Bob's taking an Escher gang, and to keep things as simple as possible, he got a ten-girl group armed with exactly the same weapons I happened to have modelled them with. So the leader has a combi-bolt-needler and electro whip, one champion has a gas thrower, the other is a gunslinger with plasma and las pistols and the rest have a selection of shotguns, lasguns and knives.

We're using the older gang lists, so not so many of the shiny toys in the 'House of' books, and our first match is a pretty simple gang fight. Except there's a twist, because why not?

The twist is that the Eschers have a tip - details of a wasteland convoy, carrying something precious and leaving soon. Shame they don't have any rides to catch such a big fish. If only there was some way they could steal a few vehicles...

Paying a few creds to a data broker to locate the key codes to a garage seemed like a good idea. But they aren't the only gangers on the prowl for some new rides - those shady double-crossing Delaque are after a piece of the action. Game on!

Gun in Sixty Seconds

Our first battle was a nice and easy one - three data terminals placed across a dense industrial sprawl. Hack them to get data points, which would be useful in round two. Stripped back rules, so no grenades, special gear or tactics cards, just an opportunity for learning the ropes.

And such ropes they were!

As the Delaque (also armed as modelled), I quickly sneaked into position and tried to hack the terminals as quickly as possible whilst shooting up the incoming banshees. It started well! Setting up a bit of overwatch with a sniper rifle, the very first Escher to stick her head over a barricade got it blown straight off. Bob was both impressed and dismayed as the other two gangers nearby immediately lost their cool and ran for cover, slowing his planned advance up.

After that, though, my luck took the rest of the night off. None of my gangers could figure out how to hack the terminals, and when they clustered round the vital points, helpfully telling each other to try turning them off and on, the Escher pounced from the shadows en masse. Leaping up staircases and over walkways, I quickly got perforated, gassed and knifed, ending the game with a lone juve standing.

Over half my gang subsequently perished! Any plans I had of these Delaque becoming long-standing rivals were shattered when I couldn't pay the doc's bills, and the Escher had plenty of info on a stash of fast cars. Plus his gang's leader, who'd utterly ruled the central battlefield with her bolter, picked up some handy boosts.

Back to the shadows for us.

Ambotulism

The Escher came away from their first fight feeling pretty chipper - a few new skills and a lead on the hot wheels.

Game two was their raid on this parking compound. Guarded by Palatine Enforcers as well as a patrolling Ambot, they'd have to force their way past security to steal the vehicles they wanted.

Luckily, their previous data mining had paid off. Rather than me randomly placing a bunch of different cars behind locked doors at the other end of the complex, Bob got to know what car went where. A small fleet of bikes, some horse-analogues, a souped-up hotrod, an Achilles Ridgerunner and an armoured ex-guard walker, all up for grabs.

Tactics cards and grenades went into the rules mix, as well as a randomly-controlled Ambot sentry with a ridiculously OP autocannon on one arm. It couldn't move and fire this in the same turn, but would get to shoot it at everything it could see after spooling up for a turn. As long as you stayed out of its sight or planned around its movement (it would always go for the nearest visible stuff), it was more of a walking hazard than a major threat.

Or so I'd hoped, anyway. Running the Enforcers this time, my plan was to use my various gas weapons to immobilize the Eschers or drive them into the Ambot's path. My plan went so completely pear-shaped in the first two turns that the rest of the game was more a hilarious exercise in death management than a skirmish battle.

See, Ambots have a regulator that you can switch off, making them even killier in combat. And Bob managed to get in close, flick that switch, win a roll-off for control and send the damn murderbot rampaging straight into the midst of my ranks. Gas grenades do not for good robot control make, and nor do electro-prods. By the time I'd managed to escape from the Bot, the Escher were right up in my grill.

Run away!

Despite a particularly heroic turn from a pistol-armed rookie, who nearly took out the Escher leader, my legal eagles got utterly crushed, somehow coming out of it all even worse than the Delaque before them! Bob's Escher girls ransacked all the vehicles from the garage, leaving my guys lying around the triumphant feet of the Ambot, and are on their way into the wastes to intercept that transport convoy.