Nuclear Renaissance: Leggy O'Gee's Watering Hole

Last week we gathered at Karl's house to play some more Nuclear Renaissance. We set up two battlefields, and Mattias and I faced off in a scenario from the Tome of The Tridlins expansion called "Leggy O'Gee's Watering Hole."

Leggy O'Gee (the chap with the sweet suit in the photo above) is a flamboyant entrepreneur running a bar in the post apocalyptic wasteland. Here's a look at the battlefield. The Watering Hole is the fortified structure in the center.

 Plenty of room for hijinx, right?

My group of ragtag farmhands has been hired on as enforcers to protect the bar during the crop offseason. They were tasked with preventing any undesirables from entering the bar. They were also all "drunk," which in this scenario gave them penalties to shooting and driving, but bonuses to stumbling out of harm's way.

Here are the undesirables, the Slagscape Conservation Collective. This community of anarchists makes their home in the molten wild, and will do anything to protect the 'natural' beauty of their homeland of twisted metal... but sometimes they get thirsty, you know? Mattias' crew was prepared for the attack and started every turn with the initiative.

As the game began, Professor Percival Blythe, the hyper-intelligent primate (specialist in critical deconstructivism!) charged forward brazenly.

Starla Kneely takes careful aim and...

Headshot! Starla quickly eliminates the raiders' sniper, Lucy Havoc. Starla was taken down shortly after, but was revived by Doc miner. In fact, she died and was revived 4 times during the course of this battle. Don't leave your doctor at home, kids!

The slag raiders' driver, Stripe Dreggs, revved Tar Eater forward, and Strag Moxie advanced, using the car as cover.

Bob Kneely took careful aim and...

Another headshot! Bob Kneely was one of the two MVPs of this game. He never missed a shot!

Here is another Kneely casualty, brawler Hard Joe Grubber.

Moxie flew into a rage, and ran out of cover into the middle of the road, flamethrower spitting hot death.

Steve Dave jumped off the cliff face, into combat with Janx Moogin. Tell 'em Steve Dave!

Well, he told 'em.

Meanwhile, Commander Pitchfork and Sloth snuck out of the bar and hopped into the bambulance and roared off, heading straight for Strag Moxie. Luck was with the raider, as he rolled into the dust, then miraculously stood up!

Spritely Jyles, manning the Tar Eater's HMG, poured firepower into Steve Dave, but he dodged every round, Matrix style.

Commander Pitchfork jumped out of the bambulance to deal with Moxie, while Sloth slammed on the gas to ram into the Tar Eater. Unfortunately, the driver was drunk and slammed into a pile of tires.

Meanwhile, Steve Dave prepared to unleash fury on a car... He hit his target, but caused no permanent damage. At this point, we had to call the game.

Since neither of us managed to officially complete the scenario requirements, I'm calling it a draw (ed.- I had three guys left and Josh had eight. I'm calling it a loss--Mattias). Even though we only played 6 turns, so many exciting cinematic events happened! It was a great game.

I really enjoy Nuclear Renaissance. We are discussing some house rules to help speed the game up a bit and resolve some questions that came up, but overall, it is a smooth playing game. I am planning on exploring more of the options in the Tome of The Tridlins expansion for our next game.

-- Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member