More Nuts! Chocolate & Cigarettes : Escort the Wounded

I decided on an "escort the wounded" scenario for my second go at Chocolate & Cigarettes.

Operation: Hyacinth - Team BBC must escort a wounded army private out of enemy territory, i.e. across the table.

OOB (I left these details out last time. Oops.):

• Lt. Corporal Hardcastle - Rep 5, Fit: 5, Pep: 3, Sav: 4, Tough, Steely Eyes, Exceptional Fixer, Smooth
• Lance Cpl. Peacock - Rep 5, Fit 3, Pep: 5, Sav: 4, Initiative, Smooth, has a hunk of cheese
• Pvt. Deacon - Rep 5, Fit 3, Pep: 5, Sav:4, Hard as Nails, Attractive
• "The Walking Wounded" - Rep 3, temporarily Rep 2 per scenario setup

As part of the scenario, the wounded can only move a maximum of twice their Rep. So, yeah, FOUR INCHES.

Good lord.

Here's the table with Team BBC and enemy PEFs in place:

[Turn 1, Germans 6, Brits 3. German PEFs won't move.]

Our heroes move through some woods. Hardcastle and Peacock take the lead to make sure there aren't any surprises.

[Turn 2, Germans 2, Brits 1, PEFS all pass two dice and move 8" towards Team BBC]

A surprise was indeed making its way towards them: a single SS-Panzergrenadier armed with an assault rifle. 

Peacock got the draw on the kraut and blasted away. 

His aim wasn't good enough.

[Peacock won the In-Sight check 3-0, he fired and scored enough to hit, but when checking the result, the enemy ended up merely knocked down and able to carry on.]

The German fired at Peacock who ducked back into cover under the barrage of bullets.

[Peacock passed 1 on his crisis test, and, since he has a BA Rifle, he is outgunned and ducks back]

Hardcastle raced up to join the fracas, but the SS trooper was ready. Dodging bullets and unphased, Hardcastle unleashed a fury from his SMG that dropped the enemy.

[Hardcastle moved up and triggered another In-Sight. The German won 4 to 1, I held my breath and hoped for the best: he missed! Hardcastle took a crisis test for receiving fire and passed 2. Even though he was outgunned, as a star I could choose his reaction, so, he returned fire and dropped the dastardly German; Jean would be proud. ]

[Turn 3 the team advanced. The sides tied for initiative on turns 4 and 5 ]

Hardcastle crossed the crest of the hill and hit the dirt as movement from the hill to his right and front caught his eye. A tense few moments passed until he realized it was just his nerves and that his mind had drifted to custard tarts.

[A PEF moved over the top o the hill and passed 0 dice to resolve.Right about now I was starting to feel pretty good.

Turns 7 and 8, the team continued their advance, going prone immediately after moving. This costs half movement to stand the next activation but, as I finally learned, the benefit when receiving fire is totally worth it.

On Turn 8, the Brits scored a 4 for initiative and the Germans a 3. With a total of 7, I could have checked to see if the Brits got reinforcements, but like I said, I was feeling pretty good.

Never a good sign.]

Peacock had leap frogged past Hardcastle to the hill to their front and took up a position watching the forest to their right. Something was out there.

This time Lione's hunches weren't custard card dreams, but an SS LMG team. In his haste, Hardcastle opened fire but was wide of the mark. The LMG fired at Peacock and dropped him, wounded. Then they turned their gun on Hardcastle and by the luck of the gods, missed him. 

[For the In-Sight, since Peacock and Hardcastle were two different groups for activation purposes, each of them took the test separately.

Hardcastle scored 3 successes
Peacock and the LMG team tied with 2. On their re-roll, the LMG team scored 2 successes, while Peacock only scored 1.

For the sake of activation it means that Hardcastle gets to act, then the LMG team, and then reactions are taken and the active side completes their activation if they can. 

As noted on the last page of the rules, it's not about winning In-Sight, but about not losing it.]

In a hail of bullets, Hardcastle dropped the gunner. The loader, unable to return fire, ducked out of sight.

[The LMG team passed 1 for their crisis test for received fire, which resulted in a snap fire at Hardcastle. Their results: 444321. All miss because he is prone.

For Lionel, I put 2 dice on the gunner and 1 for the loader. Boom! Obviously Dead result for the gunner.

The loader passed his crisis test for man down with 2 dice, but he was outgunned, so ducked back.]

The firefight continued between Hardcastle and the loader, who, seizing initiative, grabbed the MG-42 and opened up on Our Hero.

[Three of the dice hit and one resulted in an OOF. 

But, Lionel is the star and has Star Power. He scored three successes and shifted the OOF to knock down but carry on (he's already prone, so there's no knocking down) ]

Bullets whizzed by his helmet, one ripping a hole in his sleeve. Angered at the damage to his fastidiously maintained uniform, he dropped the loader cold in his tracks.

Even before the last gurgle of life left the German, Hardcastle ran to Peacock to ready to carry him out.

[On Turn 11, the initiative summed up to 7, in favor of the Germans. This led to a new PEF right next to Deacon and the wounded.

SON OF A &%#!@!*&%]

[Fortunately it only passed 1 die, and resolved to nothing. Thankfully, no additional PEFs appeared before the team made it across the table. ]

Mission : Success!

After the mission, I checked for Peacock's status (a rule I had missed on EVERY PREVIOUS GAME PLAYED) and he passed two dice, meaning he returns to the squad for the next mission.