Martians invade Pennsyltucky

Just before the COVID lockdown, I bought some Warlord US Infantry at a flea market, and painting them occupied me for a while.  I'm in Michigan, and we're still mostly locked down, so gaming at the local store isn't an option.   Not having a WWII opponent, I unpacked the Flying Frog Martians I use as 5150 Hishen and decided to solo game a monster movie type scenario.  The rules I used were 5150: Star Army 2nd Tour, from Two Hour Wargames.

 Dateline: August 10th, 1950, 

S-Mart Shopping Center, Pennsyltucky

The Pennsyltucky National Guard has been deployed to the shopping center in response to a Martian saucer landing in the parking lot.  First squad is on the left, second squad on the right, and a medium machine gun team in the center, across from Cooter Liquors.

Turn One: US wins activation and the two squads advance to the parked cars.  Two PEF (Possible Enemy Force) turn out to be "just a case of nerves".  A third PEF comes out of the liquor store and resolves as a squad of Martians.  In Sight tests were taken and the National Guardsmen opened fire.

The gunfire sent three Martians OOF (Out of the Fight) and the survivors ducked back into the store.

On the next turn, the Martians failed to activate, while the Guardsmen advanced for an assault.

On Turn 3, the Martians won Activation and opened fire on First Squad, causing several casualties.  The Guardsmen, who failed to activate, broke and ran.

Turn 4 saw the Martians activate first, so they came out of the liquor store and then they also won the In Sight test, opening fire on Second Squad.  The Guardsmen took a couple casualties and then also ran away, leaving the Martians victorious.

Space Fighters!

Fredonia System, Groucho Sector

Intel sources indicate a high potential for military aggression by the Hishen into the sector, and long range sensors have detected FTL entry of several craft to the system.  Due to sunspot activity, sensors are currently unable to identify the craft, so Freedonian PDF has ordered a flight of Bee class light fighters to identify the craft, with a flight of Sabre class bombers on station for a strike mission.

Pre-mission intel was good, but current sunspot activity (I rolled a cosmic storm) is preventing the use of sensors.  Another pre-mission surprise was the unfortunate roll that the flights will be facing Unexpected Resistance, doubling the number of Possible Enemy Forces.  Since this becomes six PEFs, I placed one in each of the six possible sectors.

Turn 1:  Fredonia 3 / PEF 6.
I rolled a die and the fighters enter the table from sector 3.  I chose to have them enter on afterburner to get things rockin'.  The PEF A resolved as, "Just a case of nerves" and is removed.

Turn 2:  Fredonia 6 / PEF 1.
PEF B moves away from and to the starboard of Bee Flight.
PEF C does the same.
PEF D moves toward Bee flight, but turns out to be nothing.  This raises the Enemy Investment Level to 5.
PEF E moves toward Bee flight, but is still outside visual range.

PEF F remains stationary.

Turn 3: Fredonia 2 / PEF 5
Bee flight heads towards PEF E on afterburner and reaches visual range.  PEF E resolves as two Vulture fighters moving towards PEF F.  Bee flight notifies Sabre flight, who enters the board in the randomly determined sector 3.  Because he's on afterburners (and the White Knight attribute) Bee flight leader holds fire for now.

Turn 4: Fredonia 5 / Hishen 3
PEF B moves 8" toward Bee flight, ending just outside visual range.
PEF C remains stationary.
PEF F moves 8" away from Bee flight.
Vulture Flight:  My dice love a good story just as much as they hate me.  Since Bee flight was outside Vulture flight's forward arc, I rolled on PEF movement to see where they'd go.  Being what they are, my dice rolled, "move 8 inches directly towards the enemy".  Since 8 is faster than a Vulture's maximum speed, I rolled to determine Vulture flight's current speed and I rolled a "1".  So the Vultures accelerated at their maximum to engage Bee flight.

As a result of the In-Sight test, both ships of Vulture flight fire.  Vulture Leader's first rocket struck the canopy of Bee Leader's cockpit; stunning Bee Leader.  The second rocket hit Bee Leader's IFF transponder, putting him at risk of being targeted by friendly pilots.  Vulture Leader missed with his mass drivers.  Vulture 2 hit with one rocket on Bee Leader's cockpit, wounding Bee Leader.  Finally Vulture 2 hit Bee Leader with one mass driver, which once again struck the disabled IFF transponder.  This second hit on the same area means the ship was destroyed.  Being stunned by the rocket fire, Bee Leader was unable to eject.

Seeing Bee Leader take multiple hits, Bee 2 jerked his ship to starboard and punched afterburners, as randomly determined by the Leader Down test plus a little die roll to see by how much he'd change heading.  My dice decided that Bee 2 would head straight toward PEF C, which naturally resolved into a flight of Reaver medium fighters, and Bee 2 ended within Reaver flight's visual detection range and arc.

Both ships of Reaver flight reacted to Bee 2 with the Dead Man's Turn, including a crash stop, which meant Bee 2 was dead ahead only 2" from Reaver flight.  Only the randomly determined facing or Reaver flight away from Bee 2 kept him alive.

Turn 4:  Fredonia 3 / Hishen 6
Bee 2 bugged out on afterburner, leaving Sabre flight alone with four Hishen fighters.  With the last report from Bee 2 being that Bee Leader was dead and the remaining light fighter was disengaging from disastrous odds, Saber flight chose to live to fight another day.

I Was in Search of a Story, and for My Sins, They Gave Me One

After only four or five years and two versions, I finally got around to playing 5150: Urban Renewal.  The following is true in the sense that I fudged no dice rolls...

Lunchtime, New Hope City Pub & Rec district.

"Hey Jerry, do you suppose Mercury Jones is her real name?"

Jerry replied while staring at traffic out the front of the news van, "It doesn't make any difference, Pavel.  She's a hotshot lawyer with big-time connections; she can call herself the Queen of Sheba for all anybody cares.  All that matters is whether her information is real.  The bar should be up on the next corner."

"Relax Jerry, I've been there before", said Pavel as he parked the Galactic News Service mobile broadcast van in front of The Drunken Clam.  As he turned off the vehicle, a sleek, black sports car turned through the intersection and parked across the street.  As Jerry Rivers, the ace GNS investigative reporter, and Pavel Datsyuk, his broadcast engineer, walked toward the building entrance, a well-dressed woman and a large man emerged from the vehicle and began walking towards the same destination.

Jerry lead Pavel into the bar as two uniformed NHCPD officers, Reed and Malloy, were settling their bill with The Samurai.  Pavel greeted the warrior / bartender / chef / optometerist loudly, "Hey John!  How's it going?"

To Jerry, the Samurai's response sounded like a Razorback Growler gargling razor blades, but Pavel seemed to understand, or at least fake it well.  "John says today's special is Ameglion Major Cow, but it's frozen, not fresh", as he led Jerry to a table near the back.

 A moment later, the same woman and man Jerry had seen outside entered the restaurant.  After a quick scan of the dining area revealed only Jerry and Pavel, the large man's grim expression broke into a broad grin, "Johnny!  My man!  What it is!"

The Samurai's reply sounded something like a cheerfully drunken wombat happily fighting a garbage disposal as he set four Pilsner glasses of Golden Monkey on Jerry and Pavel's table, while the newcomers approached.  Jerry began to remark that nobody had ordered the drinks when both Pavel and the large man each raised a glass, turned to the Samurai, shouted, "Sun Wukong!" in unison and took deep drinks of the dark, amber beer

The woman smiled warmly to Jerry and said, "I'm Mercury Jones and this is my associate John Slade.  You look older in holo-cast", as she seated herself while the others followed suit.

Jerry took a drink and looked into Mercury's eye, "So, what's this story you want me to look into?"

"What do you know about Prosperity Corporation and Green?"

"Enough franchises have opened up here in NHC that they opened a processing facility.  So what?"

"Do you know the ingredients?"

"I don't cover business or science human interest stories, why don't you -

Mercury cut Jerry off mid-sentence, "That's what they want you to think.  Haven't you wondered why that new facility is so secretive about their raw materials and waste?  Has anybody at all noticed that the Black Jack abductions began right when Prosperity opened their facility?

"