Dinosaur Cowboys – Tabletop Skirmish Game

This was an exciting but brutal match for the two posses involved (the third player is away on business).

First of all, the setting: The players had heard rumors of a Neotechnoist science station deep in Death Valley who were studying weather patterns. They found the station, and spied on the crew for a while. They learned that a field team was elsewhere, and the Neotechnoists were testing some kind of “Thunderclap Gun” (which was actually a Sonic Gun, basically 4A-0D with the “Terrify” special, meaning 2+ damage = force Bravery Test on target).

Objective: “Smash and Grab” to get two prototype guns and escape off the board.
Deployment: “Center”, with the Neotechnoist lab team in their science station in the middle, and both players deploying opposite each other on the short table edges.
Turn Limit: 6, but we decided to bump this up to 7 during the game.
Features: The idea here was to simulate a growing dust storm and increasingly bad weather. Which meant:
Turn 1-6: Blinding Sun
Turn 1-3: Extreme Temperatures
Turn 2: Light Duststorm
Turn 3: Heavy Duststorm
Turn 4: Light Fog
Turn 5: Heavy Fog
Turn 6: Forest Fire

For some bonus spice the players could choose to team up, which they did. But this meant the Neotechnoists, seeing the large attack force, called their field team for backup.

The “NPC” posses involved were Sandoro’s Lab Rats (the Neotechnoist lab team) and the Field Team Alpha Tango (field team).

The Field Team showed up at the start of Turn 2 from a random long table edge, to keep with the “Center” deployment style. They showed up all mounted on their dinosaur, to represent them rushing to the base with all haste.

Like I said the battle was pretty brutal. The lab team hid well in their bunker, only popping out to take potshots at the Hadley’s Hope posse. The field team, seeing no dinosaur for the Dustin Tails, decided to commit their melee based group to push back that gang. In the end they did so, at a heavy cost (losing all but one member).
Neither player was close to capturing the objective, since the close quarters fighting inside the building was not their forte, and from the pressure of the field team. However they did a lot of damage to the defenders, but ended up retreating into the deepening dust storm.

Next up they will head to the race track at Pahrump, which will be played out this weekend. Should be a fun time!

Pictures of the table setup before the Death Valley game started:

Left to Right: The full table, with the side tray for the building interior. Look at the “four quadrant” hill style of the table. The building interior, with the 3D table being a “Medical Station” providing 1D12 healing per Action Phase using it. Up close of the science station, which is an old cardboard bunker I made when I was a kid. Half game, half game room. A close look at the campaign map, where you can see the splitting route.