One Hour Skirmish
Wargames – SF Urban Dystopia
By
John Lambshead
The Core Rule Book
Backstory
The One Hour Skirmish Wargames (OHSW) fast play diceless
wargame rules are designed to be a toolkit to allow players to create
gun-orientated skirmish scenarios that can be played at ‘film speed’ because
the various probability ranges are subsumed into the game system. The effect of
this is to create a game with minimal mental arithmetic where players
concentrate on fire and movement, using just a simple army sheet in front of
them as a memory aide.
OHSW scenarios are specific to certain genres with their own
special rules, musket era, rifle era, etc. Here, I provide a new genre for the
game that is very popular among SF fans and wargamers (groups with a fair
overlap of members) – the SF Urban Dystopia.
IN OHSW, each genre is illustrated by a scenario, and I
continue to follow that pattern here. I have chosen to use Citadel models for
this example because they are inexpensive, easily available from Game Workshop
itself and many independent outlets world-wide, and because they are great
urban dystopian models. My Bright Lane Mob uses models from Citadel’s Goliath
Gang kit, and my Limehouse Collective mob uses models from Citadel’s Escher
Gang kit. These gangs are in the “Necromunda: Underhive” starter set so are
likely to be widespread among wargamers interested in dystopian SF games. The
models are built ‘straight from the box’ as they are shown on GW’s website and
box art.
Legal Note: ‘Necromunda’ and other names such as ‘Gangs of
House Goliath’ and ‘Gangs of House Escher’ are either ® or TM, and/or ©
Copyright Games Workshop Ltd, variably registered around the world. All Rights
Reserved. They are used without permission and no challenge to their status is
intended.
Londinium
Londinium is an industrial city that expanded rapidly from a
small service-industry town due to rich finds of olueum in underlying
geological strata. Oleum is an organic soup of complex metalo-organic molecules
that provides cheap starting points for many chemical processes. Londinium
expanded rapidly with vast industrial plant built to mine and refine oleum –
and to service the needs of the itinerant workforce drawn into the city.
Unfortunately, the oleum beds are all but exhausted and the
large Consortia have moved out, leaving behind hectares of decaying industrial
infrastructure and those who for one reason or another have been unable to
emigrate. Wildcatting on a small scale is still possible. And various
unregistered operations process raw oleum into high-value chemical ‘substances’
that are worth a fortune in more civilised societies – all the more valuable
because they are completely illegal.
Although a City Authority nominally still exists, real power
at ground level in Londinium is held by the assorted street gangs who have
carved up the city into small territories, often based around a single street.
Skirmishing along the borders of gang territories for control is endemic as
gang fortunes wax and wane. Above the street gangs are the ‘Firms’ and their enforcers,
who control import and export into the city and own the municipal authorities –
such as they are.
Note: this happy set up is based on our fair town of London,
it’s gangsters, street gangs and the massive illegal drug trade.
All the rules in the original OHSW book stand unless
specifically modified.
Scenario 7 – Protection Racket
Introduction
A group of wildcatters have discovered a forgotten
underground storage containing several decabarrels of unprocessed oleum that
must have been overlooked when the refinery was abandoned during the Londinium
mass riots. They bring one of the semi-derelict refineries on the site back
into use.
The local area, Dustville, was a completely depopulated zone
of largely burn out buildings and wrecked industrial machinery claimed by no
gang so the wildcatters assumed they could operate with impunity.
Unfortunately, nowhere in Londinium is completely unoccupied. There is always
the odd itinerant passing through for reasons known only to themselves so it
was not long before word leaked out to both the Limehouse Collective and the
Bright Lane Mob.
Both these street gangs had technically claimed Dustville
but it had never been worth fighting for: now it was. The objective is to
impress the Wildcatters that your gang can provide security and hence should be
paid the usual Protection Money.
Battlefield
The battlefield consists of a dense agglomerate of burnt out
buildings and industrial plant, leavened with discarded vehicles barrels and
spiced up by the odd uncrossable toxic dump. In the centre, place a large
container representing the reactivated refinery. The Limehouse Collective set
up within 6” of the southern map edge while the Bright Lane Mob set up within
6” of the northern map edge.
Game Length
The game lasts until an army breaks or is destroyed.
Objective
The objective of each gang is to impress upon the
wildcatters that they, and not their opponents, are best placed to protect the
vital refinery by keeping potential thieves and vandals away so players get
victory points for holding the refinery rather than destroying opponents.
Players get 1 victory point for every ganger within 6” of
the refinery at the end of each turn.
The player with the highest number of victory points at the
end of the game wins.
Limehouse Collective
The Collective are an all-girl street gang operating in the
rundown Limehouse region of Londinium. They have an agreement with the Canning
Cartel to supply the Firm with high grade narcotics from Limehouse
distilleries.
Motivation: 4
Special Rule: the Collective use chemical stimulants to
avoid fatigue – their movement rate is +2
People
Gang Leader
Sonata: tubro-carbine, electric whip, leadership (3)
Enforcers
Poppy: turbo-pistol, leadership (1)
Kalee: two pistols, ambidextrous, leadership (1)
Ash: flamethrower
Gangers
3 X shooters with rifles
3 X fighters with pistols
Cost: 41 points
Weapons
Turbo-Carbine: range 24 inches, 1 shot, AP(1)
A target in hard cover gets only 1 card for defence against
a turbo shot: this represents the shot smashing bits off the cover in a blast
of ‘shrapnel’.
Turbo-Pistol: range 6 inches, 1 shot AP(1)
A target in hard cover gets only 1 card for defence against
a turbo shot: this represents the shot smashing bits off the cover in a blast
of ‘shrapnel’.
Pistol: range 6 inches, 1 shot
Rifle: range infinite, 1 shot; range 12 inches 2 shots
Flamethrower: range 6”, automatic knockdown on target model
plus draw one card for every model within 3”, ignores cover – one card only for
defence
Electro-Whip: (i) range 3 inches, automatic knockdown of
target, (ii) in close combat draw one extra card
Skills
Amidextrous: can fire both pistols together at the same target using only one action point.
Bright Lane Mob
An all-male street gang that hire themselves out as muscle to
such Firms as are willing to pay them. The Dustville Job is a step up for the
Bright Laners as they are trying to carve a little biz of their own.
Motivation 3
Special Rule: Bright Laners use heavy duty anabolic steroids:
the resulting extra muscle mainly allows them to carry and use weapons that are
too heavy for normal humans to employ comfortably such as (i) large two handed
close combat weapons (wrenches, hammers, axes - LCCW) used one handed and (ii)
pistols and carbines firing massive slugs so count as turbo weapons.
Gang Leader
Yellow Eye: Turbo Pistol, LCCW, Tough (1), Leadership (2)
Enforcers
Martini (up for a bust any time, any place, anywhere): Turbo
Pistol, Grenades, Tough (1) Leadership (2)
Smacker: AGL, LWCC, Tough (1), Leadership (1)
Shog: Industrial Stapler
Gangers
3 X Shooters with Turbo Revolver Carbines
1 X Basher with Industrial Cutter
2 X Basher with Pistol and LCCW
1 X Basher with Two LCCW
Cost 41 points
Weapons
Turbo-Pistol: range 6 inches, 1 shot AP(1)
A target in hard cover gets only 1 card for defence against
a turbo shot: this represents the shot smashing bits off the cover in a blast
of ‘shrapnel’.
Turbo Revolver Carbines range 18 inches, 1 shot, AP(1)
A target in hard cover gets only 1 card for defence against
a turbo shot: this represents the shot smashing bits off the cover in a blast
of ‘shrapnel’. Models within 3 inches are also attacked by ‘shrapnel’, draw one
card for the attack, one card for defence. Note that this effect only applies
if the original target was in cover and was knocked down.
AGL: range 24 inches, 2 shots, two cards per shot – ricochet
rules apply but only for the second shot, if appropriate.
Industrial Stapler: range 9 inches, one shot, ignores cover
Grenade: range 9 inches, one shot, blast radius 2 inches
LCCW: draw one extra card in close combat
Industrial Cutter: two extra resolution cards in close
combat.
Skills
Toughness: one extra card drawn when defending against a gun
or blast weapon (not the electrowhip)
New Weapon Notes
Guns can be projectile or energy shooting. It is a
distinction without a difference in game terms.
All fighters carry ‘shanks’ (blades) of some sort that are
simply factored into the close combat rules.
Turbo: some weapons are upgraded by the word ‘turbo’ to
indicate that they are heavy duty with Armour Piercing 1. Heavy duty in this
sense means that they fire an exceptionally strong burst of energy or a large
projectile that might be rocket assisted, discarding sabot dart, or otherwise
high velocity, and/or a shaped-charge exploding warhead. A target in hard cover
gets only 1 card for defence against a turbo shot: this represents the shot smashing
bits off the cover in a blast of ‘shrapnel’.
+1 point cost
Electro Whip: can be used as either a ranged weapon or a
close combat weapon.
+1 point cost
Large Close Combat Weapon: one extra resolution card in
Close Combat per LCCW.
+1 point cost
Industrial Cutter: two extra resolution cards in close
combat.
Plus 2 points
Play-Through
The Bright Lane Mob
I played the Bright Lane Mob while my regular playtester Shaun M. took charge of the Limehouse Collective.
The Mob started by cautiously advancing through the industrial wasteland.
Limehouse Collective Snipers
The Mob were almost immediately picked up on the Wildcatters surveillance cameras and Collective snipers moved into position on the ruined gantries high over the refinery to make use of their rifles' long range.
The area around the refinery had been cleared so gave zero cover. I couldn't win a firefight at long range (or short range come to that) with the Collective so my tactics were for my assault gangers to close as fast as possible while my shooters moved into the open to blast the snipers off their perches.
I was relying on my gangers toughness to protect them in the open, the cover-blasting ability of my turbo-guns, and the close combat strength of my steroid-jacked lads.
Down he goes
This little vignette shows what went wrong with my strategy. Unfortunately, I had overlooked the high mobility of the girls. As my first ganger moved in clutching an industrial cutter Sonata dashed down the ladder, ran across the polluted concrete and smacked him down with her electro-whip.
And anuvver one
Things went from bad to worse as my next ganger moved in and promptly lost the combat against a slip of a girl with a knife.
A pattern emerged: Sonata knocked them down and then the girl with the knife cut their throats.
The End
Meanwhile, as predicted I lost the firefight and all my gangers legged it after Yellow Eye was knocked down by multiple laser blasts.
Shaun won by Four Points to One
Good Game and it actually took an hour.
