Remove ads

Clear Skies, Captain

Reader mode
Remove ads
Turn 2.2 ; Hostage Dilemma
  • Threadmarks
    • [Tie->Pluck+Audacity exceeds Leadership+Cunning->Go Myself]

    When you tie up votes in Clear Skies, I'll compare Pluck/Audacity vs Leadership/Cunning, with the more proactive action tied to the former, and the conservative choice to the latter.

    Hidden check result [Last Turn] (DC 5 Cunning): 2
    Cunning Check Pt. 2 (DC 5): 7

    When I've got a team of engineers and a couple bodyguards lined up, I grab up my rifle and join them on the landing lift. "You'll be careful, Tori?" asks Marao as I double-check my ammo pouch.

    I give him a smile, saying "of course, Marao, I know what I'm doing."

    And a hearty thanks to the Ancestors that I did know what I was doing. We picked our way to the crash site with their radioman guiding us in, but as I listened to their radioman more and more, I began to have my suspicions raised. Flicking off the receiver, I motioned the team close. "You and you, scout forward. I've got a bad feeling about this," I warned. "I'll be claiming we're about a minute or two behind where we're at from here on. Engineers in the back, mages keep your spells at the ready."

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The two men I sent ahead to scout the crash site returned post-haste, and the news was poor. Depths' Bounty had been captured, though it's poor state was honest truth, and they found a trail leading a ways off to what was probably a camouflaged strip, and a likely pirate haven on the otherwise uninhabited island.

    I can't very well turn around now, as the Bounty's crew and captain are likely hostages at the crash site and a ground presence could give us the chance to free them, but without the team I've taken along, either the Spring Storm or it's squadron won't be at full strength when the haven airstrip scrambles fighters. Alternatively, I could covertly pass along coordinates for the airstrip so Marao and me can take out all of the pirates' air power before it even takes off, leaving the Spring Storm to run rampant across the sky, hopefully giving us enough of an edge to rescue the Bounty's crew and captain in the chaos...

    [] My team initiates an ambush by land to rescue the captured crew... (Bonus, Marines Special Rule)
    -[] While Marao covers us by air (weakened Airship)
    -[] While Marao covers us by air (weakened Squadron)
    -[] While Marao covers us by air (no Ace)
    [] My team initiates a ground assault on the pirate haven airstrip... (Bonus, Marines Special Rule)
    -[] While Marao adds heavy artillery (Skip air combat entirely, Bounty's crew in jeopardy)
    [] We turn around and reinforce the Spring Storm for an aerial assault (No Air Penalties, Bounty's crew greatly in jeopardy)
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] My team initiates an ambush by land to rescue the captured crew... (Bonus, Marines Special Rule)
    -[x] While Marao covers us by air (weakened Squadron)
     
    [X] My team initiates an ambush by land to rescue the captured crew... (Bonus, Marines Special Rule)
    -[X] While Marao covers us by air (weakened Airship)
     
    Is there a way to check which one would be worse to weaken, the airship or the squadron?

    Since Marao got his new toy, I am tempted to test it in combat. Does it mean weakening the Airship?
     
    Nevill said:
    Is there a way to check which one would be worse to weaken, the airship or the squadron?

    Since Marao got his new toy, I am tempted to test it in combat. Does it mean weakening the Airship?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    You will either not have an ace, have a penalty applied (semi-randomly) to your squadron, or applied (semi-randomly) to your airship.
     
    [X] My team initiates an ambush by land to rescue the captured crew... (Bonus, Marines Special Rule)
    -[X] While Marao covers us by air (weakened Airship)
     
    [X] My team initiates an ambush by land to rescue the captured crew... (Bonus, Marines Special Rule)
    -[X] While Marao covers us by air (weakened Airship)
     
    [X] My team initiates an ambush by land to rescue the captured crew... (Bonus, Marines Special Rule)
    -[X] While Marao covers us by air (weakened Airship)
     
    Turn 2.3; Daring Do
  • Threadmarks
    • ~~~~~~~~COMBAT~~~~~~~~​


    You can ignore most structure elements for this encounter; only the southernmost tower is a real element, representing the Pirate haven and rudimentary AA (range 2).
    North Airship (Crashed Airship)
    South Airship (Spring Storm)
    Female Silhouette (Victoria's Team)
    Spade (Marao)
    Leftmost Plane (Your Wing)
    Other Planes (Enemy Wings)
    Enemy Ace (Unknown Location)

    Captain not Present: Leadership set to 0 (1 Wing) (2 Direct, 1 Screen, and 1 Cycle cards in deck)
    Audacity 1 (1 Ace) (2 Direct, 1 Sky Dance, 1 Fox Trap, and 2 Tune-Up cards in deck)
    Cunning 1 (2 ??? in deck)
    Airship on partial crew (A random weapon does not fire during each assault)

    Cunning Test (Cunning vs Cunning): 5+1 vs 3+(?) Win!

    ENEMY Leadership 2 (2 Wings) (4 Direct, 3 Screen, 2 Stuck-In, 2 On-Six, and 2 Cycle cards in deck)
    ENEMY Audacity 0 (1 Ace) (2 Direct, 1 Sky Dance, and 1 Tune-Up cards in deck)
    ENEMY Cunning 2 (Slightly advantaged, 3 ??? in deck)

    Spring Storm gains 2/10 Initiative.

    DRAW 3:
    (Wing - Direct: Move up to Speed+1 hexes. If an enemy is encountered encountered, engage)
    (Ace - Tune-Up: Vanish an Ace. It appears adjacent to one of your airships with a point of damage repaired)
    (Cunning - Sunstrike: Vanish an Ace. It appears in the same hex as any enemy Wing or Ace and receives +1 to any Fox Hunt or Duel against the selected enemy)

    ENEMY DRAW 4:
    Cunning Test: 5+1 vs 3+2 (Reveal a random hand card)
    (Wing - On-Six: Move up to Speed+1 hexes. Take -3 to Dogfight or Fox Hunt dice, but do not take a damage phase if you lose)

    Enemy cards played face-down.
    Play up to 1 card for each Wing and Ace you have.
    [] Wing Card
    [] Ace Card

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    With the orders relayed out, it's time for me to decide how to go about freeing the Bounty's crew. I'm locked and loaded, and the tingle of magic on my skin has got my blood boiling!

    [] I could go for a frontal attack, hopefully catching them flat-footed between overseeing their prisoners and trying to look legitimate for my arrival so they could lure us in.
    [] Alternatively, I could fake my team's way right into the middle of them and have the mages I brought put up a few wards, so they can't form a defensive line.
    [] There's a chance we could envelop them and scare them into surrender in the first few shots of the firefight before they realize there's only a few of us.
    [] Or I could just try to find a way to sneak in myself, kill whoever's on prison guard duty, and free the crew while the team does one of the above strategies.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Okay, more questions.

    Does Marao already have his special plane, or is he still using the default Zentao?
     
    Okay, 1 more question :

    Does our airship more than 1 initiative per turn, or is it going to be entirely useless for the first X missions? Because we have 3 morale, meaning at best we can stay in the fight for 3 rounds.

    Also, how does the enemy flak work. As an airship, mechanically, or does it get to shoot every turn?

    Third, can we use our Cunning- Out of the Sun card to suprise the currently hidden enemy ace?
     
    Last edited:
    10ebbor10 said:
    Okay, 1 more question :

    Does our airship more than 1 initiative per turn, or is it going to be entirely useless for the first X missions? Because we have 3 morale, meaning at best we can stay in the fight for 3 rounds.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    There are means of cheating your morale up in a fight, especially against grounded enemies without an airship of their own. Generally, when your Aces are successful, you can expect to see your morale expense held for a turn, and grounding enemy wings or aces kick morale up even higher.

    And I may have misread the airship's stats. Speed 1 means it picks up an extra initiative point per turn. If you have additional units of crew reserved for the airship, you can get a potential additional +2 initiative per turn.
     
    [X] Wing Card : Direct : Send Wing down 1 space so that it ends up on our airship.
    [X] Ace Card : None
    [X] There's a chance we could envelop them and scare them into surrender in the first few shots of the firefight before they realize there's only a few of us.

    So, reasoning.

    By putting the wing on the Airship, we keep it out of enemy anti-air fire. Also, any wing attacking the airship, will first have to deal with our wing. With a decent amount of luck, that can result in the enemy wing being downed before they can hit our ship.

    I'm so far keeping the Ace in reserve. Chances are too great that the enemy will play their On-six card on the lower Wing, which render any attack he does pointless, as well as placing him in harm's way from the Anti Air artillery.
     
    Last edited:
    Late posting because the map on mobile...yeah, had to wait till I got home :p

    [X] Wing Card - Direct - Move two hexes northwest
    [X] Ace Card - None

    Okay, the enemy base has range 2 AA and we don't want to commit to fighting that until we have their ace flushed out. Just need to move our wing out of their AA and in positionto cover us.

    [X] Alternatively, I could fake my team's way right into the middle of them and have the mages I brought put up a few wards, so they can't form a defensive line.

    They want us in, we want us in. Why not?
     
    veekie said:
    Okay, the enemy base has range 2 AA and we don't want to commit to fighting that until we have their ace flushed out. Just need to move our wing out of their AA and in positionto cover us.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Is that a thing? Does the enemy get to strafe our ground forces?

    Anyway, I'm quite reluctant to let our airship go uncovered. Our airship has a grand total of 2 HP. And, in a best case scenario, our airship only has a 33% chance of resisting their attack.

    A charge against the ship could very easily lead to it's destruction.
     
    Our Ace is right next to the airship, and is also out of range of the AA. The Wing is in range of the AA, and in a good position to provide air support to the other fight, forcing their wings and aces to come out from their AA cover
     
    Powerofmind said:
    North Airship (Crashed Airship)
    South Airship (Spring Storm)
    Female Silhouette (Victoria's Team)
    Spade (Marao)
    Leftmost Plane (Your Wing)
    Other Planes (Enemy Wings)
    Enemy Ace (Unknown Location)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Colors to discern who is a friendly and who isn't would be really nice. :)

    I don't understand, what determines the amount of cards we draw?

    What can our Airship do? The rules mention they can act less than once a turn, but how is that determined? What does Initiative do? It allows Strategic Maneuvers when filled, but the list of known maneuvers is empty. I am afraid I don't understand the rules. :cry:

    [X] Wing Card - Direct - Move two hexes northwest
    [X] Ace Card - None

    [X] Alternatively, I could fake my team's way right into the middle of them and have the mages I brought put up a few wards, so they can't form a defensive line.
     
    Colors when I figure out how to change them on the thing I'm using.

    Number of wings+number of aces+1.

    When the airship hits 10 initiative, you'll pick up a set of possible maneuvers and do one of them. Generally they fire all weapons or somesuch.

    After each fight, I'll add all newly seen maneuvers to the list.
     
    veekie said:
    Our Ace is right next to the airship, and is also out of range of the AA. The Wing is in range of the AA, and in a good position to provide air support to the other fight, forcing their wings and aces to come out from their AA cover
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Right next to doesn't mean a thing. Unless the enemy crosses his path, he'll just sit and watch as they attack our ship. We need to provide cover of our own ship.

    How about an alternative. We send the flight to where you want them, but have the Ace be proactive and attack the enemy fighters?

    @Powerofmind Is providing air support to the other fight a thing that can be done, or is it a waste of an action.
     
    Last edited:
    10ebbor10 said:
    Right next to doesn't mean a thing. Unless the enemy crosses his path, he'll just sit and watch as they attack our ship. We need to provide cover of our own ship.

    How about an alternative. We send the flight to where you want them, but have the Ace be proactive and attack the enemy fighters?

    @Powerofmind Is providing air support to the other fight a thing that can be done, or is it a waste of an action.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    That's a thing that can be done. If you want to pop over that way you could have the Dirty Halfbreeds or Marao throw a little fire down, and it'll positively impact your potential results there. Even at the worst, it'll hurt both sides in mostly equal measure from indiscriminate shooting, and since there's more of them than there are of you, you might call it a net positive.

    As for the AA, basically, every turn you're in range kicks off an especially weak Assault check. It can't hurt you particularly bad unless you try to get right on top of it, otherwise it's more of a nuisance than anything else. You can try to eliminate it, but it's a groundbound emplacement even if it's not hardened, so it'll be a bit of a task to take down completely... except for Marao's ridiculous Hisso, of course, which is so loaded up with weapons it's practically silly.
     
    Turn 2.4; She Who Risks Wins!
  • Threadmarks
    • ~~~~~~~~ROUND TWO~~~~~~~~​


    You can ignore most structure elements for this encounter; only the southernmost tower is a real element, representing the Pirate haven and rudimentary AA (range 2).
    BLUE - Your faction
    GREEN - Tertiary faction
    RED - Enemy faction
    Green Airship (Crashed Airship)
    Blue Airship (Spring Storm)
    Female Silhouette (Victoria's Team)
    Spade (Marao)
    Plane Silhouettes (Wings)
    Red Diamond (Enemy Ace!)

    Cards Revealed:
    Pirates played:
    Ace - Takeoff! (on Haven hex)
    (Ace - Direct: Move up to Speed+1 hexes. If an enemy is encountered, engage)
    Wing 1 - Moves 2 (Onto Marao)
    (Wing - On-Six: Move up to Speed+1 hexes. Take -3 to Dogfight or Fox Hunt dice, but do not take a damage phase if you lose)
    Wing 2 - Moves 2 (1 hex north Spring Storm)
    (Wing - Stuck-In: Move up to Speed+1 hexes. If an enemy is encountered, engage and prevent the enemy and yourself from moving the following turn)

    Rolling Thunder played:
    Ace - None (Hold position)
    Dirty Halfbreeds (1 hex south Crashed Airship)

    ACTION PHASE

    Zentao 3 Pirate Wing vs Marao Akoreki (Custom Hisso X1)
    Foxhunt Test: +2 vs +9, Test canceled, Damage phase skipped (card effect)

    Victoria's Gambit
    Cunning Test (DC 4): 5+1
    Pass!

    Penalty to Marines: not a full Crew unit, d6 converted to d3
    Penalty to Pirates: not commanded by a captain, Audacity 0, Morale -1.
    Marines Test: 3+7 vs 3+2
    Major success! (>5 difference)

    Spring Storm gains 2/10 Initiative, now 4/10 Initiative

    DRAW 1:
    (Wing - Screen: Automatically move up to Speed hexes in order to intercept an enemy)

    INTERCEPT: Cancel further movement of the intercepted Wing and counter the intercepted Wing's card effects.

    ENEMY DRAW 3:
    Cunning Test: 4+1 vs 2+2 (Reveal a random hand card)
    (Wing - Direct: Move up to Speed+1 hexes. If an enemy is encountered, engage)

    Both parties lose 1 Morale.
    Currently 2 and ?.

    Enemy cards played face-down.
    Play up to 1 card for each Wing and Ace you have.
    [] Wing Card
    [] Ace Card

    Remember that Aces always perform their card effects before Wings, but simultaneously with each other.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    In the skies above the island, the Ace pilot Marao performs a daring dance with the Pirate squadron bearing down on him. The skull-painted fighters are cautious, they don't recognize the fighter model Marao is using, and it's with good reason that they are especially careful as they open up their guns, as The Nemean's incredible aircraft dances between autocannon volleys like it was made for that kind of thing. Nearly a dozen times over the skilled Iosho native is forced to disengage, however, as the pirate squadron always keeps a man ready to fly down his tail to keep him from getting a good shot.

    Meanwhile, as orders are relayed to the Dirty Halfbreeds to assist the captain in her ground assault, the second pirate squadron flies in to catch them, moving too slow to do more than follow their air-trails. The battle in the sky has only just begun!

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    As I approach the impromptu camp set up around the Bounty, I begin to spot a number of little things I wouldn't have been looking for if I didn't know I was walking into a trap. Crates and tables are set up with cloth on them, though not every piece of cover has it's bullet holes hidden from the previous attack. A bit of recently-shifted dirt to hide bloodstains or bodies. We're led closer to the ship, I suspect they likely plan on cornering us in the engine room, where we can't fight back easily.

    But I'm not falling for it. I see the bullet holes, I smell the barely-noticeable copper tang of blood. I approach the man dressed as first mate, privately wondering where the real one is, and smile genially as I shake his hand. I can see the barely-concealed greed and lust in his eyes. In a flash, I pull my pistol from my hip and put three rounds in his chest, before finishing him off with a shot in the head.

    He falls like a sack of potatoes, and before the rest of the pirates in the camp can even fire back, the mages have incinerated, unmade, frozen, or impaled nearly a quarter of the ones in the open, while the engineers and bodyguards have riddled another quarter with bullet wounds. Their shouting is confused with their lieutenant dead, and the mage wards go up before they even fire a shot. We have an opportunity, here, to push farther still, to take the airship by storm.

    [] I'll keep the men out here for now. When the rest of the pirates outside of the airship are dead, we can clear the ship, carefully.
    [] We'll finish them out here and rush the ship, hopefully we'll get to Ariel and as much of the crew as possible before the stragglers inside take hostages.
    [] We'll take a risk and rush the airship, storm it to rescue as much of the crew as possible so we can ensure they don't take hostages.
    [] I could personally sneak on amidst the chaos and go straight for Ariel, and we could try to use the hostages to rescue each other. My men can handle things from here.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top