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Author Topic: Black Ops game report  (Read 3766 times)

Online Malebolgia

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Black Ops game report
« on: November 20, 2015, 10:06:48 AM »
Black Ops – Game report

A week ago me and my mate René played our second game of Black Ops. We bought the rules straight from the start, played a game and liked it a lot. Simple rules with enough options to give us many different games and genres. Excellent for our diverse collections of miniatures and scenery.

For our second game we played an Espionage mission in the city. René was the defender and I was the attacker. He chose Intelligence agents and I went for Special Forces. I think he chose 7 models (1 Ace and 6 Jacks with pistols, pump action shotguns and SMG’s). I chose 2 Jacks (Assault Rifle and a Hacker with SMG), Heavy (Vikhlop silenced sniper rifle) and an Ace (SMG). All weapons were suppressed.

The Mission
”Ares Corporation had worked for months to get intel on Novadyne. It involved multiple spies, data hacks, stakeouts, comm bugs and drone support. But now they had key intel on Novadynes top secret research on cybernetics. This information would give Ares’ stock an extreme boost and this would make the planned hostile takeover much easier to facilitate.
The agents had moved the data to the edge of Novadyne turf. It was hidden in a small noodle bar and the agents were now waiting for extraction. In half an hour the VTOL would blast in, extract the agents and the data and return to Ares HQ.
Unknown to Ares, the entire operation had been closely followed by Petrovka (a giant corp from former Russia). When Petrovka learned of the intel and and the extraction plan, they acted fast. Assembling a small team of elite soldiers, they quickly infiltrated Novadyne’s territory. The soldiers would sweep in, take the data case and leave the area.”


The city

The data was hidden in the noodle bar in the centre of the table. The Ace was guarding the data case in the building while four guards patrolled the area. Two guards were patrolling further away (they were kept off the table as reinforcements). The Petrovkan special forces moved in from the top right. And of course a lot of civilians were walking the streets…
 
The game
(During our first game the alarm never was raised and it seemed hard to do so. To test this I went for an aggressive and fast approach.)
The soldier with SMG ran towards the noodle bar, running around the building. The other trooper and Heavy went for a central approach through the corridor, keeping their eyes on two guards.
But then the civilians started to interfere…the stripper close to the soldier with SMG wasn’t too pleased in seeing Petrovka in the neighbourhood and started to scream and shout. This noise, combined with the running of the soldier made the nearest guard suspicious. He rounded the building and stood face to face with the soldier! The soldier had no chance of staying stealthy, so the guard shouted the alarm.
Hearing problems, the Ace ran forwards, trying to get to the action in time (both my Ace and his Jacks had 1 activation left and I hoped my Ace would activate first, so he could take out the alerted guard). But the guard acted faster and shot the Soldier with two shots…fortunately for him, his armour protected him and he stayed on his feet.



But the shouting and shooting had attracted the attention of the Ace and it was enough to alert him! So the Ace went out of the building and the die roll attracted him to the action. Once again my soldier had no chance of keeping stealthy and the Ace saw him straight away. He opened up with his SMG and one of the shots got through the armour…man down!



So at the end of turn 1 the alarm was already raised and I had lost 1 man. Oh dear!

The Petrovkan  sniper activated…he stepped out of cover and got one of the guards in his sights. One .50 shot later and the guard was headless…
Funnily enough a news team was standing next to him, together with a priest. They were doing a news item on cybernetics versus the old faith at the Medical clinic. They had no idea they were being dragged into this sudden conflict. The camera man was splattered with brains and gore and the reporter jumped right into the scene for a live report! She would follow the action and report it live on the holofeed.



Next up were the agents. The two reinforcements showed up, (next to the Ace! One with SMG and one with pistol) and they went closer to the main danger. Three moved up, in cover, while the one with shotgun and SMG opened up on the Petrovkan Ace. He was hit several times, but made all of his saves. He returned fire on the one with shotgun and gunned the agent down.



The agent Ace decided to be bold and jumped over the skip to get closer to the Petrovkan Ace. This got him within short range and my Ace had no advantage of cover…but once again the armour held!
The Petrovkan returned fire and the agent Ace went down. The Petrovkan Ace then quickly moved to the cover of the trees and shot down the newly arrived agent with SMG. It was pure chaos! And all the civilians ran away as fast as they could, screaming of course.



But the Petrovkan Ace finally ran out of luck. The agents activated and he was shot by one with a pistol. One shot got through the armour and the Petrovkan legend went down. The agent didn’t get a lot of time to enjoy his shots though…the Petrovkan soldier sidestepped the ad cube and shot him down with his assault rifle.



While the agent was down, the Petrovkan sniper moved up to the corner of the building to provide covering fire for the soldier. The soldier then went for the noodle bar and quickly moved inside (we decided the windows were closed).  The soldier went for the data case, which was cuffed tight to the kitchen sink. He now had to find a way to get it loose…
An agent ran across the street and next checked up on his partner. The shot agent was only shell shocked and with the help of his partner he managed to get back to his feet.



The helping agent then quickly ran to their luitenant and it quickly became apparent the man was gravely wounded. He needed help fast, so the agent slowly carried him away to safety.



The two remaining agents were in a pickle. They obviously wanted to jump into the building to get the drop on the soldier. But both knew the sniper was eyeing their spots like a hawk and neither had the guts to make a move through the alley….

Then the soldier finally managed to destroy the cuff and he signalled the sniper to suppress the agents. The sniper opened fire on the position of the agents. This gave the soldier the time he needed and he bolted out of the door. Time to leave the area!



One agent tried to intervene and shoot him down, but the suppressive fire was so powerful and accurate he quickly ducked back into cover. Apparently a semi-auto .50 sniper rifle does that to you…
So instead he ran the other way and raced along the long building, hoping to cut off the soldier carrying the data. The sniper then backed away, keeping his eyes on the alley. The second agent rounded the noodle bar, but stayed out of sight.
The soldier was nearing the rendezvous when he heard an agent on his flank. The agent moved up and fired his pistol wildly. The armour and cover saved the soldier. “Run or shoot? ” thought the soldier? Dropping the case, he turned and fired back at the agent…but the agent survived the deadly firepower! The agent reacted by moving up and firing back. He was now firing from a different angle and the soldier had no benefit of cover. This time the shooting proved to be deadly and the soldier went down bleeding.



The sniper saw this from the alley. He moved up, raised his gun and put a .50 through the agent. Don’t mess with the boomstick.



Before the remaining agent could react, the sniper had snatched the data case and made off to the rendezvous. The data was secured and Petrovka scored a massive hit on both Ares and Novadyne.



Thoughts

*Fun game! It was tight, we saw a lot of new situations, the outcome wasn’t obvious and we had a lot of laughs.
*In our first game sounding the alarm seemed a bit off and hard to accomplish. Fortunately in this game we saw the opposite. My special forces managed to raise the alarm in turn 1! Way to go guys ;). It showed that stealth IS important as it will give you an important edge. Now it all became a deadly chaos.
*Civilians are a bit weird if you follow them by the book. We decided to roll for them during the stealth phase but let them flee from the table once the chaos starts. I also don’t understand their help with Blinds…maybe because I don’t understand Blinds in a stealth mission. Civilians are also extremely ANNOYING if you are the attacker :D.
*We used a bit of roleplay during the game and didn’t go hardcore. For example, the agent carrying his boss could have let him bleed out and help out in the firefight. But René decided it was cooler and more logical he would carry his boss to safety (and I agree!). I think the game becomes a much cooler and more cinematic experience if you play it like a story and less like a hardcore game.
* I need to finish WAY MORE stuff for my city. I need more clutter, more garbage, more buildings, more cars. It’s getting there…but it needs to be a lot better than this.

We already have more than enough ideas for our next game…who knows…maybe GI Joe meets Black Ops…?
“What use was time to those who'd soon achieve Digital Immortality?”

Offline Gunbird

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2015, 12:02:10 PM »
Excellent report, and you have a nice city!
Who is Gunbird? Johan van Ooij, Dutch, Mercenary Gamer, no longer mobile and happy to live life while it lasts >> http://20mmandthensome.blogspot.com/

Offline PF

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2015, 12:27:29 PM »
Cool stuff.
I agree with your first three thoughts. I've played only once and raising the alarm seemed almost impossible unless you ran and shot like crazy which we did. Once it was done tho, reinforcements really changed the game.

Offline blacksoilbill

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2015, 01:00:43 PM »
Interesting report, and fantastic looking table!

Offline has.been

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2015, 01:14:04 PM »
great game report & scenery, I especially like the Advert cubes (dice boxes). I haven't bought the rules, but due to what you have done I very well might.

Offline Redmao

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2015, 02:31:12 PM »
Fun report and amazing looking table.

Offline Michka

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2015, 03:30:59 PM »
Great report! I love the scenario. It'd be fun to use it for a Cyberpunk RPG session. Hell, I wonder if you could run out twice, with the players as the attackers the first time and defenders the second time. Just change the corporation names and the McGuffin. Then see if they realize what's happening.

You city looks amazing. Between the pieces you've chosen and the paint jobs it really sings. You've packed that space with lots of eye candy. I can see where more scatter terrain would look cool, but will it get in the way of playing the game?

Online Elk101

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2015, 04:41:42 PM »
Good stuff! That's a great set up too, where are the paved areas from?

Offline Elbows

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #8 on: November 20, 2015, 06:23:46 PM »
Incredible table, and brilliant use of the dice-boxes as advertising pillars.  Very cool.
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Online Malebolgia

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #9 on: November 20, 2015, 06:29:48 PM »
Cheers guys, much appreciated!
@Michka: totally agree on the story angle and twist. One of the great elements of Cyberpunk IMO :)
And for the clutter it'll mainly be stuff around buildings...so they will be around the edges, giving extra cover and making the general shapes of all scenery elements more random than just an arrangement of box-shapes. But yes, playability will be the key!

@Elk101: It's the plastic Games & Gears Battle Boards from their (TERRIBLE) Kickstarter. I painted the tiles with a tan color and added a lot of dirt and grime to the roads. But I think I will make the pavement a bit more dirtier. It's a bit too clean. Maybe add some papers here and there, more dirty stains, etc.
« Last Edit: November 20, 2015, 06:37:13 PM by Malebolgia »

Offline Warren Abox

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2015, 08:51:12 PM »
Sounds like you didn't really tally up points costs, but just played everything by ear.  Can you run this game without crunching a whole lot of numbers on the force prep?

Online Malebolgia

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2015, 10:15:52 PM »
Nope, we played with points... 50 each. Easy calculations with a handful of models.

Offline Warren Abox

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2015, 11:55:42 PM »
Nope, we played with points... 50 each. Easy calculations with a handful of models.

Gotchya.  The force composition rules in the back with the fireteams versus squads added one more layer to the force building rules.  With just 4 to 8 models per side it looks like those don't really factor in at all.

Offline Dentatus

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #13 on: November 21, 2015, 12:08:32 AM »
Very nice report and great looking table. Thanks for posting.

Offline NurgleHH

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Re: Black Ops game report
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2015, 01:32:38 PM »
Great table! I think random moving civilians are not the best solution.
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