Fallout: Boneyards (Chariots of Steel playtest / New Vegas Sequel Quest!)

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CHARACTER SHEET
  • Informational
    • NAME: Xiuyuan "Alderesh" Yang
    AGE: 41 | GENDER: Male
    CURRENT STATUS: No injuries, 0 RPM, 7 STRESS

    HARD​
    KEEN​
    CALM​
    DARING​
    -2​
    +3​
    +4​
    -2​

    MOVES
    Breadwinner
    Fen Yang: She's having a hard time at work/school and are unsure about their future​
    (*)(*)( )​
    [-1 Stress Per Routine!]​
    Bronwyn Yang (aka Browny): They're struggling with long-form Warflu and need expensive meds to kick it. Fortunately, you've managed to send some.​
    (*) (*) ( )​
    [-1 Stress Per Routine!]​

    Get It Done: Each Routine, hold 3. Spend that hold to get a partial hit on any check before rolling.
    Old Reliable: The tank gains +2 Integrity, +4 Safety and +3 Reliability for ground vehicles, and removes Unreliable and gives +1 to Attack for a firearm.
    Domestic Bliss: When you're at 0 stress, take +1 ongoing to all rolls outside of air combat. You're not in air combat. Haha. Holy shit. Really, Erika?

    GEAR
    Cortex Comrade, a miniaturized personal computer which uses a persistent heads-up display to help workers perform their tasks… or soldiers target the enemy.
    A bandoleer with three smoke grenades.
    A super stimpack, purchased with your own money. Just in case.

    MASTERIES
    Getaway Mastery: Passive (Every move you take adds +1 Handling in ground vehicles.)
    Can't Miss: Reduce your Speed penalty to shooting by -3. When your vehicle attacks at Knife range, +1 AP. At Melee range, +2 AP.​

    VICES
    Cannabis
    Reading
    Music

    TONK
    A9 "Wander Home", M7 Oliver
    Speed: 4 | Torque: +2 | Handling: 23
    Armor: 4/2/1 | Integrity: 25 | Safety: 3
    Reliability: 0 | Fuel Use: 7 | Stress: 1

    SPECIALS
    Festooned with Hatches: Every position on the tank counts as having a Hatch, and any member of the crew can leave from any side or fire personal weapons in any direction.​
    Gun Stabilizer: The addition of a gun stabilizer reduces the movement penalty from the vehicle's own Speed by 2.​
    Linked: All crew positions have an intercom.​


    TANK CREW
    Yang: Commander | Type: Closed | Visibility: +1 | Escape: +2
    Drives-Fast: Driver | Type: Closed | Visibility: -1 | Escape: +2
    Trudy: Main Gunner | Type: Closed | Visibility: -2 | Escape: +1 |
    1 F. Cannon (AP/HE) | Hits: 1/6 | Range: Long/Extreme | Damage: 24/3 | AP: 4/0 | Specials (Both): Reload 1, Artillery, Heavy 4, Awkward -5 vs Planes. HE Shells gain burst​
    Arcs: Fore, Rear, Left, Right​
    1 WMG | Hits: 6 | Range: Long | Damage: 2 | AP: 1 | Special: Rapid Fire (always on rapid fire because there's no penalty while in a vehicle), Braced, Heavy 2​
    Arcs: Fore, Rear, Left, Right​
    Dora: Bow Gunner | Type: Closed | Visibility: -2 | Escape: +1 | Engine Access!
    1 LMG | Hits: 4 | Range: Long | Damage: 2 | AP: 1 | | Special: Repaid Fire (see above), Braced​
    Arcs: Fore​
    Mask: Loader | Type: Closed | Visibility: -2 | Escape: +1 | Assists Cannon Shooting

    TANK PLATOON

    H2 "Mighty Mighty Man", M2 Dumont - Armed with an MG
    Sergeant Baalaji: Commander/Gunner
    Private Iron Moth: Driver

    P9 "Lil' Mo Action", M2 Dumont - Armed with a Cannon
    Corporal Aubrey Angel: Commander/Gunner
    Private Caitlyn Smith: Driver

    INFANTRY SUPPORT

    Sergeant Christina Morales: Squad Leader

    Corporal Arnold Brick: Second in Command

    Lance Corporal Betty "Doc" Tracy: Medic

    Private Gordon Xavier: LAW Man

    Private Nosejob: LAW Man

    Private Samantha Yeager: LAW Man

    Private Michael Burnside: Sniper

    Private Thomas Barker: Rifleman

    Private William Barker: Rifleman

    Private Gwendolyn Price: Rifleman

    Lance Corporal Zǐhán Quin: Rifleman
     
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  • Informational
    • [X] Keep on with the plan: Suppress and send the infantry forward with MMM to flank.
    -[X] But spend an Order to give MMM our stat bonuses for this action.
    -[X] And use the pintle mount to shoot at the guy, hopefully keep him down, would be better to keep him dead.

    We can only pray that luck is on their side.

    EDIT:

    Actually... let's just shoot the guy ourselves.
     
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    [X] Keep on with the plan: Suppress and send the infantry forward with MMM to flank.
    -[X] But spend an Order to give MMM our stat bonuses for this action.
    -[X] And use the pintle mount to shoot at the guy, hopefully keep him down, would be better to keep him dead.
     
    We have a smokescreen launcher. I'm assuming it's one of the "Hit button, instant smokescreen" varieties?

    Can I get a confirmation on this? We've been firing smoke shells up until this point.
     
    Lollerisms said:
    We have a smokescreen launcher. I'm assuming it's one of the "Hit button, instant smokescreen" varieties?

    Can I get a confirmation on this? We've been firing smoke shells up until this point.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Yang has smoke grenades and smoke shells! You get both, and can use either of them (thus far, though, smoke shells have been used more often.)
     
    Wait so what does the "smokescreen launcher" on our tank actually do?

    In Plan: Toys for Everyone our tank got a smokescreen launcher and a pintle mount.
     
    Sorry for the delay on that, @Lollerisms!

    The smokescreen launcher has been fluffed as "grenades that you have."

    So, basically, you can deploy a smokescreen around yourself, or you can fire smoke shells! So, if that changes your plan, post now before I tabulate votes and get things moving again.
     
    DragonCobolt said:
    Sorry for the delay on that, @Lollerisms!

    The smokescreen launcher has been fluffed as "grenades that you have."

    So, basically, you can deploy a smokescreen around yourself, or you can fire smoke shells! So, if that changes your plan, post now before I tabulate votes and get things moving again.
    Click to expand...
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    Ohhhh, so any vehicle could just get smokescreen launcher and get the ability to launch smoke as far as they can reach it, that's actually very clever!
     
    Adhoc vote count started by DragonCobolt on Dec 25, 2021 at 2:51 PM, finished with 11 posts and 3 votes.
    • [X] Keep on with the plan: Suppress and send the infantry forward with MMM to flank.
      -[X] But spend an Order to give MMM our stat bonuses for this action.
      -[X] And use the pintle mount to shoot at the guy, hopefully keep him down, would be better to keep him dead.
      [X] Keep on with the plan: Suppress and send the infantry forward with MMM to flank.
      -[X] But spend an Order to give MMM our stat bonuses for this action.
    Click to expand...


    Good news!

    You rolled an 11 and a 3 for MMM being shot.

    But now, thanks to giving them your keen with one of your orders, that's a 8 and a 0!

    Meaning that MMM *won't* be taking, like, 12 damage!

    Meaning you still won't have to face the preposterously evil damage chart....for now...

    Oh, but do roll 4d20 for your pintle.
     
    2.3: One Prisoner
  • Threadmarks
    • "Baalaji! Swerve! Left! LEFT!" you scream into the radio. "NOW NOW NOW!"

    The Rockwell belches fire and smoke as the Legionnaire fires - and you can see the white streak of the rocket, tracing a line of death - sweeping from the barrel to the front of the Mighty Mighty Man. The roar of the explosion and the sweep of smoke obscures the light tank as you swing your pintle around.

    "Fuck! Fuck!" You hiss - and open fire. Bullets chatter from your machine gun, and you play the tracers along the rubble - but the Legion has hit the ground, and…

    A second fucking antitanker pops up.

    The Mighty Mighty Man emerges from the smoke - unharmed. The storage bags that had been hanging off the side of the turret are torn open and smouldering, but that's it.

    You sweep your machine gun at the other Legionnaire. He remains standing, and bullets seem to hit everywhere but him as he sights.

    The Mighty Mighty Man swerves hard to the left.

    Fires.

    The rocket whips past the turret.

    Over Brick's head.

    Past the infantry.

    Into the window of a ruined building nearly three hundred meters away. And then it explodes, smoke and fires belching from the windows of the building as it collapsed. Mighty Mighty Man's gun started to pepper the Legion position and the second rocketeer's body twitched and writhed, blood misting the air.

    "Are they okay!?" Drives Fast asked. "Are they!?"

    "I can't see-"

    "They're fine! Legion missed!" you shout.

    "All right, let's do the hard work, boys," Morales' voice crackles over the radio as Drives Fast slams her knuckles into the roof of her cabin, punching the metal with excitement.

    "Yeah! Fuck! Fuck you! Fuck you Legion! Fuck!"

    Brick waved his hand and four infantrymen joined him as they sprinted around the Mighty Mighty Man. You held down your trigger, hosing down the rubble as well, forcing the Legion to keep their head down. Soon, the infantry are obscured to you - then you see the tiny grenades glinting as they fly up, then clatter down. Smoke and flames explode from the rubble. There's a few more cracks, bangs, shouts…

    Then…

    Silence settles down, silence save for the distant ratta tatta tatta of distant gunfire, the rumbling roar of artillery, the droning of low flying planes. Next to the terrifying roar of cannon and grenades, it's basically the same as sitting on the beach. You keep your gun aimed at the group as the Testudo's crew stumble from the rubble.

    Two of them.

    One of them is clutching his arm to his side and stumbles, hard, and gets dragged back straight by Lance Corporal Tracy. The other has his hands up and is being pushed along by Brick. You sigh, slowly, feeling the tension blazing out of you in the moment of silence. You did the mental math. A Testudo, a Scorpio, two squads, two armored cars, and in the whole thing? Two prisoners.

    You tried to imagine what it would be like if the Legion kept fighting this way.

    It was estimated that Legion covered most of Nevada, a good chunk of Utah, bits of Arizona, and Colorado, and a few of the big population centres in New Mexico. That was what the maps said at least, and those maps were based on sneaky bastards in the D.I.S, so…they might even be only half wrong.

    If you remembered the stats you read, that would put their population at about a quarter of the NCR's.

    You tried to imagine killing all but two or three of every squad. Every tank. Every army.

    You rubbed the back of your head as Brick glanced up at you, meeting your eyes. The silent question in his eyes forces you back to the moment. "Pass them back along the line, then get ready to start pushing-"

    The Legionary ahead of Brick starts to move.

    Time seems to slow down.

    A pin drops to the ground. The grenade in the Legionary's hand pings loudly. Brick grabs him, shouting.

    You start to move.

    The Legionary is flung aside by Brick's arm, literally swept off his feet.

    Red.

    You slam backwards and cough as blood splatters your mouth, your ears ringing. You skid back into the turret and Drives Fast and Dora both grab onto you. "Sir! Sir! Are you injured?" Dora asks, while Drives Fast shakes her head.

    "That's not his blood-"

    Outside the tank, you hear something that relieves you more than you could possibly express.

    "Godfucking damn, WHO SEARCHED that ASSHOLE!?"

    Brick sounds mad. Not hurt. You drag yourself out of Drives Fast and Dora, ignoring their voices, even as Trudy shakes her head and opens her hatch. You get up and out of the turret, then skid down, barely noticing the faint stinging along your shoulder.

    The Legionary is just a red smear. Brick has blood all over his side, and you can count one, two…three, four…five pieces of shrapnel in his chest, which he ignores with the aplomb only a mutie can. He is pointing at Private Xavier.

    "Xavier, you dumbshit! Check! Everywhere!" Brick bellowed. "I did not live one and a half goddamn centuries to be taken out by a Roman cosplayer!"

    Corporal Tracy stammered. "S-Sarge-"

    "I'm fine, human weapons don't hurt me," Brick says,his voice a deep boom. "See to the rest of the squad."

    "We're all fine, sarge!"

    "Well!" Brick huffs. "Then next time, some of you get your butts injured, I'm sick of being your portable cover."

    You, Baalaji, Angel and Morales meet around your tank. "We've made three clicks," you say. "We have twelve more to go. How are we looking, everyone?"

    "We're down three LAWs, one grenade a piece, and are at about…seventy percent ammo, I think." Morales says. She glances over, looking at Tracy and Brick. "Brick's playing it off, but I think he is hurt."

    "We're good to keep pushing, sir," Angel says, nodding. "Haven't even gotten scratched."

    You frown, bringing up your map on your cortex comrade. "Corporal Tracy, how's my corporal looking?"

    "Uh, well, he can keep fighting, sir," Tracy says, but in the way that medics do when they know it's not the best idea, but know that sometimes, what's best for the patient isn't what's best for the war. You rubbed your chin, looking at the map.

    This entire fight had eaten almost a half hour.

    "All right, there's going to be a big throw down here," you say, pointing at the interchange ahead of you - not that you'd gotten any radio messages on it, it was just…fucking obvious. You were sure if you tuned into the right communication network, you'd hear all about it. "We have a bit of time to…"

    —
    What do you do?
    [ ] Send Brick back for medivac and get supplies (no more Brick, restock shells and ammo)
    [ ] Get supplies, keep brick (restock shells and ammo)
    [ ] Push harder (maybe catch Legion off guard, may run low on ammo, LAWs)
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Send Brick back for medivac and get supplies (no more Brick, restock shells and ammo)

    We have an artillery strike at our disposal and not blindly wasting soldiers is what makes us better than the Legion. Brick healing and being able to fight another day is the right choice here.
     
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    [X] Send Brick back for medivac and get supplies (no more Brick, restock shells and ammo)
     
    [X] Send Brick back for medivac and get supplies (no more Brick, restock shells and ammo)
     
    [X] Send Brick back for medivac and get supplies (no more Brick, restock shells and ammo)

    We're a Worker, not a Soldier. We take care of our people, not charge ahead.
     
    [X] Send Brick back for medivac and get supplies (no more Brick, restock shells and ammo)

    Holy crap we finally got out of the encounter but just barely.

    If we don't have 3 keen, we are dead already.

    Also the Testudo is still somewhat intact right? I doubt we can salvage it anytime soon since it's still stuck beneath a building and might be booby trapped but hey, maybe someone else in the army can use it.
     
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    dragonkid11 said:
    If we don't have 3 keen, we are dead already.
    Click to expand...
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    Something I've noticed: Defense pays WAY more in this game than it does in Flying Circus. Like, obviously, not getting shot in FC is good, but FC also has a lot of "marginal damage." Like, if some big ass motherfucker with 6 MGs opens up, even if they're shooting at you with only 25% of their shots hitting? That's still going to chip at your toughness.

    So, being able to effectively put them down is what wins.

    Meanwhile, in Chariots of Steel, the difference between a ricochet and the NIGHTMARE DAMAGE TABLE is really huge.

    Oh, also, missing has more of an effect - you can suppress, then flank people you miss.
     
    Yeah it's like, at first I thought this is gonna be a bit difficult since we have -2 hard which make shooting harder, but the enemy missed us even more often anyway so eventually the exchange works out.

    Anyway we should... focus fire more often with calm because frankly, we can take return fire and stuff, and that might actually let us hit more often.
     
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    DragonCobolt said:
    Meanwhile, in Chariots of Steel, the difference between a ricochet and the NIGHTMARE DAMAGE TABLE is really huge.
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    The damage table isn't that bad, unless you start getting a lot of damage at once. But it also highlights the importance of Keen, because the difference between a 16+ and an 11-15 can be the difference between taking 12 damage, and taking 24 damage - and due to how bell curves work, any penalties can reduce odds of a high damage shot by something like four times easily, if not make It outright impossible to penetrate your armor with some weapons from longer ranges.
     
    [X] Send Brick back for medivac and get supplies (no more Brick, restock shells and ammo)

    He's wounded wounded and we're a little light on ammo. Given how much fucking armor the Legion's been throwing at us, might not be the worst idea.

    Do either of those BigBazookas look salvageable? Actually, while we're waiting for resupply to show up, does anything from the legion position look worth taking? Lots of room on a tank for loot and snagging a MG or four to tape onto the tank isn't the worst idea. Tanker looting mentality and all that.
     
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    Acatalepsy said:
    The damage table isn't that bad, unless you start getting a lot of damage at once. But it also highlights the importance of Keen, because the difference between a 16+ and an 11-15 can be the difference between taking 12 damage, and taking 24 damage - and due to how bell curves work, any penalties can reduce odds of a high damage shot by something like four times easily, if not make It outright impossible to penetrate your armor with some weapons from longer ranges.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Ground open fire move is done with 1d20 instead of 2d10 in air though, so keen number has less of an effect.

    Doesn't make a difference here since it saved our ass so many times, alongside speed too.
     
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