NUTS! - Send in the Brits!

Welcome to the first game in my first NUTS! campaign, we will be following Captain Robbie Knight who is the Section Leader of the 1st Section, No.4 Commando unit. He commands a section of 11 highly trained British commandos and works alongside another similar section and a 3rd support section to make up the remainder of his platoon, you can see details of his section in a table a bit later on.

It's 22nd January 1944 and No. 4 Commandos have been deployed to Italy, 1st and 2nd sections have been ordered to patrol a wooded area to try and secure the region to make logistics for the rest of the force easier, enemy resistance isn't expected to be high and as such the level of support the commandos have is limited.

(apologies for the colours on this table, they're copied straight from my excel sheet and I don't have time to fiddle with it)

ID	Name	Type	Rep		Weapon
1-1	Cpt. Robbie Knight	SL	5		Medium   SMG
1-2	WO. Arden Mayes	Jr SL	5		Medium SMG
1-3	L Cpl. Hewie Newell	LMG Gunner	4		Bren LMG
1-4	S Mjr. Rigby Cartwright	LMG Asst.	6		Bolt Action Rifle
1-5	S Mjr. Jimmy David	Rifleman	6		Bolt Action Rifle
1-6	L Cpl. Zack Sniders	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-7	L Cpl. Keegan James	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-8	L Cpl. Irving Ware	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-9	L Cpl. Hal Howard	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-10	L Cpl. Harve Jerffries	Rifleman	5		Bolt Action Rifle
1-11	Pvt. Lee Bass	Rifleman	4		Bolt Action Rifle

Red targets are PEFs, Blue represent scouted terrain (I give up on that after a while)

Deployment sees 1st section taking position in the woods to the west while 2nd section does the same to the east, the commandos take a moment to quickly scan all the possible defensive locations for enemy troops but all the visible terrain looks clear for now.

As part of deployment we generate 3 PEFs, one pops up behind the ruins in the center of the staging area while the other two start out in the north east most woods 

Activation rolls [British 6-1 German] - friendly reinforcements turns out to be nothing...

PEFs in the woods move towards 2nd section and the one behind the ruin remains stationary.

The commandos are still going over their plans and preparing to move out.

Activation Rolls [2-5] -  enemy reinforcements, 6 infantry, 1 with panzerfaust...

 

A German squad made their way into the area from the north, one of the men (1-3) is armed with a panzerfaust while the rest had their standard armarment, meanwhile the two eatern PEFs waited behind the crest of the wooded hill, out of sight.

The British commandos start to creep through the woods on either side of the area, their plan is to advance up each flank to minimise their own vunerablitiy while being able to support eachother if neccesary.

Activation Rolls [4-6]...

Both sections continued to advance forwards, 2nd section left the cover of the woods to dash across open ground towards a nearby hill hoping to gain a vantage point.

Activation Rolls [2-1]...(sorry I forgot to snap a picture here)

2nd section formed up at the end of the woods and then advanced, unsure of what they were walking into. A snapping twig nearby put the men on edge, but after a breif check it turned out the just be a case of nerves and so they moved deeper into the wood.

1st section upped the pace to try and stay level with the other section, as they reached the edge of the woods they came to a sudden halt, the point man had spotted a squad of Germans behind the ruins a short distance in front of them. It didn't seem the Germans had noticed the commandos as none of them seemed to be readying their weapons.

Seeing this as a good oppertunity the three front commandos oppened fire, two men drop to the ground and the squad bursts into action scrabbling to find any cover they can while dragging their wounded away.

Once they'd made it to cover the Germans which could wasted no time in returning fire L.Cpl. James lost his footing as the bullets whizzed past his head but he managed to escape harm and all other shots were poorly aimed.

With automatic fire flying towards them the commandos kept their heads tucked in behind the trees, they all knew just how easy it was to get clipped.

Activation Rolls [3-1]...

L Cpl. James regained his feet as the rest of his section manouvered to better firing positions through the hail of bullets directed at them, miraculasly none of them get hit and the presence of their captain keeps them all focused on the job at hand. L Cpl. Newell put his training to good use and with the help of his assistant managed to get his Bren LMG set up towards the ruins in no time, it was time to do some surpressing fire of their own. The LMG began violently spitting a stream of bullets all over the enemy position, wisely the occupants imedietly ceased fire, chosing instead to keep their heads down, however the squad leader didn't react quickly enough and slumped to the ground with blood pouring from his arm and stomach.

Hearing the eruption of fire 2nd section made haste towards the top of the hill to set up their own firing position, once again the machine gunner of the team does an excellent job setting up and is ready to fire extremely quickly. Another rifleman hits the dirt as a result of their salvo, the Germans had quickly became pinned with two machine gun fire coming in from each flank, not a good place to be.

Suddenly the western LMG was silenced as more fire began coming in from the north, a German squad had arrived in support of their comrades and with two SMGs had done a pretty good job of pinning the commandos down. A considerably less amount of fire scattered itself across the eastern flank as the squad also engaged 2nd section and bolt action rounds were exchanged, the German squad ultimately lost the exchange as they lost one man to the fire an another to his nerves.

The support from the north allowed the squad in the ruins a bit of time to reorganise and set up some fire of their own, no hits were scored but the use of a rifle launched grenade made the commandos keep their heads well behind cover.

Activation Rolls [2-5] No reinforcements...

The firefight continued on the west with another German going down, 1st section prepared to make a move while second section kept the squad in the ruins busy, managing to rip the enemy machine gunner appart with their own LMG. The gruesome sight and heavy casualties appears to be enough for them as 2nd section notices the remaining men putting their weapons down.

Activation Rolls [1-3]...

The panzerfaust squad leader barked violently at his men that were hunkered down, soon bringing them back to fighting condition, they soon came under LMG fire as half of 2nd section occupied the ruins and rounded up the prisoners, this gave 1st section a chance to split up and form two teams to encircle the enemy and scout more of the area at once.

Probably through sheer stubberness than anything else the two remaining Germans continued fighting against unimaginable odds, this got one of them hit before he could even fire as he poked his head up and instantly caught an LMG round in his shoulder, this was enough to make the squad leader finnally admit defeat as he was the last man standing.

[Many turns later]

The commandos managed to complete their objective and scout the area without encountering any more resistance, they made their way back to the forward base for tea and medals.

New Virtual Board

Just a quick update, I've decided to start using a new virtual board which will allow me to adapt to new games which I'm planning to play in the near future (Like the new ATZ which I will be purchasing soon). Battle Chronicler is a great bit of software but I think that the RP Tools Maptool will let me include interior sections to my maps, something which is important in the rpgs I want to play, alot more easily.

The downside of this switch is that I need to get used to the program and get all my images etc together so it'll be a little while before my next report is up, but it shouldn't take more than a week at most for everything to be sorted and ready. Once that's done I'll be putting up my first battle of my NUTS! campaign, we'll be playing a British commando section leader and working our way through the campaign until its resolution or we die.

Red Sand Blue Skies - All Muscle No Brains

Today Vergilius is matched up against another Threax who has very unusual characteristics, he is of average size and has no signature traits however the results I got while rolling up his stats were truly bizarre, he has a measly 2 Speed and Savy, but a colossal 6 Strength! Needless to say if this guy hits us we are going to know about it. (All the images have both gladiators stats, wounds and bonus dice on the right so you can see where they're being used if I forget to mention them, click on the image to get a bigger version)

Speed check: Vergilius 5 - 6 Aristole

Even with a two point advantage in speed I still managed to uphold the tradition of losing the opening speed test, quite a feat I must admit when you have double your opponents speed, but not to worry, as long as I won the next one I'd reach the center first and have the most advantageous position. It should probably be noted that at this point Aristole failed both of his option dice meaning he should really remain still and catch his breath but seen as his bonus dice pool was full and he had no injuries I decided it would be a bit weird for him to just stand there.

Speed check: Vergilius 6 - 7 Aristole

...Or not as the case may be. Aristole managed to once again pip me at the post and take the center of the arena before I could move, the only thing you can really do to move someone out of your way in this game is to charge in head first...so being a cautious and strategically minded individual that's exactly what I did. All I can say is thank god for auto successes, I managed to fail all of my rolls leaving me with a result of 4 thanks to my speed, despite throwing in a bonus dice the best result my opponent could get here would be 5, beating me by one, luckily one of his dice came up a 4 which meant we'd tied and would both remain where we were while catching our breath. Not the best of starts for either of us really.

I've got to stop doing that...

Speed check: Vergilius 6 - 4 Aristole (After 1 tie)

Here we go, we've got first turn and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances here, I make my highly intelligent and completely unpredictable charge forwards and after sacrificing 2 bonus dice I score a very good 7 successes, without at least 3 bonus dice this target is unreachable for my opponent and coincidentally thats exactly how many dice he decided to use. Unfortunately for him his rolling let him down and he scored no successes other than the 2 free ones for his speed, I took the opportunity to unleash a bash attack and once again had devestating rolls, using 2 bonus dice each I managed to beat him by 5 rolls, giving the best result possible from this test. Aristole is sent flying backwards into the dirt and suffers a hit to his chest, luckily managing to avoid hard with the use of his shield.

My opponents turn was short and simple, he just clambered back to his feet and remained in his zone to catch his breath.

Speed check: Vergilius 7 - 6 Aristole (After 1 tie)

Another success for me allows me to carry on taking the fight to my opponent, I easily outmanouver him again and opt to attack his unshielded side rather than bashing. Wanting to be sure of a good result I throw in 2 bonus dice, my opponent also expends 1 of his own, the end product was another decisive victory to me as Aristole was once again forced back this time suffering a light wound to his belly.

This time Aristole wasn't just going to stand there and take it, he advanced into my zone and took the fight back to the manuver table, for some reason he chose not to expend any bonus dice and as such I easily won again, once more I chose to go for the unsheilded side. Feeling confident I only use 1 bonus dice, my confidence may have been a little premature however as I only scored 2 successes with my 9 dice, luckily my opponent couldn't capitalise and we went into another round of combat...3 rounds later and another 2 bonus dice lighter I manage to break my opponent and inflict a serious wound to his already damaged belly.

Speed check: Vergilius 8 - 5 Aristole (After 1 tie)

I can sense the win here so I want to press on and not give my opponent a chance to catch his breath, my rolling seems to have improved as I easily outmanouver him again and seen as my regular attacks had been a bit dicey so far I decided to try another bash this time. With no bonus dice being used from either combatants I managed to get a good opening for my attack, as brutal as it is this attack connected with his belly too causing yet another small wound, his midriff was really taking a pounding. All he could do in response was to get back up to his feet and catch his breath in the hope of getting a lucky attack on me next turn.

Speed check: Vergilius 9 - 4 Aristole

Its time to finish this fight, I move forward again knocking aside my opponents weapon to set up for another attack to the unshielded side, this could easily end this.  Aristole manages to hold me off with the help of a bonus dice and we go to a second round of melee, rapidly running out of options he uses the last of his dice in an attempt to fluke his way out of an incredibly sticky situation, alas it was no good and I beat him by a huge 5 successes sending him flying backwards with a deep cut in his lower left leg.

Aristole hit the dirt having used up all his energy and the fight was declared over, now this may have seemed an easy win as I escaped being hit once, but I can guarentee that with a strength as high as his it could have very easily only taken one hit to kill me outright, it just goes to show in this game Speed and Savy are very important attributes, while you may be able to kill in one hit with a high strength connecting with that hit is very difficult.

We gained 10 Fame for this fight which allowed us to level up our strength with 5 fame remaining, furthurmore I've just now realised I've not been taking into account my +1 to strength for my size so our total attributes are acctually 13, this means we're at the stage where we can upgrade to the next locale, im keen to start using the mercy rules etc and to hopefully experience a special match or two. So next time we join Vergilius he'll be fighting in the heart of the empire and infront of some very demanding crowds.