RS Mercenaries on Mars 5 Never get off the wagon

Grinding through untracked wastes past the swamp. The crew have escaped the Canal Martians and are making an unsteady and near random course back to the Regiment.

The Captain was sore, his back still hurt from the telekenetic shock. Sleep did not come easy in the back of the wagon, even if they had more room. 

“So you were in a swamp and water's running low. And fuel?” Pause. “Sir we need clean water and dry fuel. We can strip the fighting compartment, starting with the benches and floor. We can burn anything from dung, desiccated corpses to black powder. We can ration and – reuse water for now.”

The Wild Bunch had started as the Wagon and its 5 crew, plus the Captain, five crew of another wagon and 2 troopers. After the raid and the near-successful ambush only the 2 veterans survived. But they have the black diamonds-,

Captain Leader3, Ambidextrous, Elite, Marksman2, Martial arts1, Tough1 Reactive 66

Sword (2) Pistol (4) 7

Ars (trooper) Vet, Marksman3, Martial arts4, Tough1 Reactive 42

Shotgun (4) * with bayonet (2) 10

The Iron Pig's crew

Eck (gunner) Reactive, Tech1, Tough1 Weaponmaster 2 Martial arts2, 27

Pistol (4) separate bayonet (2) 6

Fork (driver) Marksman1, Reactive, Tech1, Tough1 23

Shotgun (4) 8

Git (engineer) Marksman1, Tech1, Tough1 17

Shotgun (4) * with bayonet (2) 10

Hog (Wagon commander) Leader1, Vet, Marksman2, Martial arts1, Reactive 31

Shotgun (4) 8

Sub total 246. I've added the pluses to the 2 survivors for the first game, plus a tentative 8 in marksman+1 and martial arts+1 respectively. Making grand total 254.

That leaves 1 gunner who's staying with the vehicle.  He's taxed with overwatch.

The Martians I originally planned these as a large game vs Torchwood.

The 3 Mounts: Claws, 2pr extra legs, reptile, Fast2 Tough2 40.

This gives Armour 1, ignore 1^st pin, speed of 2,8 &10, reduced by one when mounted.

Basic Green Martian “App” Ampidextrous, Extra arm, Huge, Insect, Weapon3

Giving armour2, no morale critical fail.

1) Leader2 Spear Mace(sword) for 47.

2) Reduction to Weapon2, Shoot1, “musket requiring reload, 4 damage, sword & spear for 42

3) Shoot1, “musket requiring reload, 4 damage, 2 spear for 44

Total 253

First off I must apologise for not having separate mounts.  I know this is misleading, but if you see both foot and mounted, please ignore the rider.  On hindsight I should have used counters.

The Game.  An old, abandoned town.  The wagon pulls up in cover.  Aching, the crew debus and start to search.

The Green leader hears something.  (3 successes) He takes a shot, runs to his mount and leaps on.  He is now unloaded.

Amazingly, his long distance snap shot hits and kills Git the engineer.

Now he comes charging out as his men mount and follow.

This is beginning to look personal-

All 3 still mounted.

Hog makes his stand.  He blows the left rider out of the saddle.

 Left rider on deck, left mount still charging.

The left mount gets close, but is headshot and goes down, bleeding out.

The Right rider and mount comes on strong.  But the gunner has (sensibly) hopped in a hatch.  He sticks his pistol out and blows the rider out of the saddle.

All 3 riders and mounts are now separate.

He's in there tighter than a swamp tic, but the mount gets in there and bites his face off-.

To say my charge has stalled- but I've killed 2 for loss of 1 mount.

The vet Ars joins Hog at the dead mount barricade and the lead starts flying.

The Captain has been quiet, sneaking to gain height.

Every time the Right rider gets up, the gunner shoots him back down.  Finally he dies.

The leader wades in and knocks down Ars, but gets a chestful at close range and is seen off.

Faced with even odds, the pair decide to get back on the wagon.  The leader stops to reload.

Resting against the wagon as he does it.

With a deep breath the leader turns the corner, scrambling over the corpse- and Ars trips, a sitting target!

But he scrambles up, turns and shoots the leader at point blank in the face!  He's dead!

 That could have gone either way.  Slightly confusing but very enjoyable game!  As this is all Space 1899 and similar inspired I wanted to treat this more like an RPG.  I've tried to give it all as Martian/period a feel as possible.  So far I'm happy.

Will the Wild Bunch ride again?  Undoubtedly.   One of the vets with a new team?  The old gang up to no good?

The Bunch gained 5 kills, so lettuce say 30 points. 
Ars goes up to Elite.
Eck gains Marksman and Perceptive. 
Hog gains Tough and Marksman for a total of 28. 
I'd be tempted to make the gunner a new recruit for balance.

Can you imagine them coming into the Regiment?  They could probably smell them before they saw them.  Dirty, half the vehicle gone.  Out of the Fokker, 25 cavalry, 6 wagons with 30 crew and 36 fighters that started out 5 inglorious bastards emerge.




Sutler Rikard was worried.  He was used to selling stolen property, but turning THESE into working farms, a brothel and a brewery was going to be a nightmare.  They wanted results NOW.   How was a soul expected to turn a profit?


The red pyramid was the first piece of 15mm scenery I made way, way back when.  The sandy yellow isn't finished and got broke up due to warping.  The menacing black ball was a full thrust ice asteroid.