Across the Dead Earth Game Test Game 2 Part 1

What is this? two games in one week! I know right! better be careful and not over do it lol!

Played my second game again a Grudge match between the two pre chosen gangs in the rules. I hope to have a go at creating my own forces to game with but time was against me this week to get them finished in time for Friday's game

http://www.deadearth.co.uk/

I'll split the report into two mainly because of all the pics and Its my daughters 6th birthday today so have a meal at a pub. Pin the tail on the donkey and pass the parcel to play! Have a great Sunday and I'll get back to comments tonight!

Rumours around The Rag Market are amongst the traders of a gang hideout near Queenstown now abandoned the hideout is located on an old derelict farm. The gang rumoured to have been captured by a squad of Staties but some say it was a large group of Sollus either way its abandoned and everyone is to scared to go look. Adam of the Family thinks there may be some good loot to be found for those quick enough as greed always overcomes fear. 

Little does Adam know but Ronnie of the Redclaw gang was the one who started the rumour and is using the ruse to rob those curious scavengers...........Played a grudge match which is a stand up fight. Deployment was in opposite corners. Figures are all the same as the previous game apart from Skylar I swapped her out for a more post apoc themed figure though I left her wargear the same she has a shotgun rather than an smg.



Turn 1.

Queenstown the abandoned hideout on the derelict farm  

 The Family L to R Skylar, Drexyl, Ezra, Reggie and oops behind Reggie is the boss Adam.

The Redclaw Gang L to R Shrimp, Pyro Shayman, Ronnie, Topper and Fatboy. 

 The Family enter the area of the old farm behind an ancient animal shed.

Ronnie and his posse are on the other side of the farm in a ruined building.

Ronnie looked up seeing a flock of crows scatter into the air from the trees the other side of the farm. With a big grin on his face he said to Fatboy get everybody ready someone's got the nerve to come for a look round.

Initiative is won by the Redclaws. (testing out rolling for activation every turn rather than when certain events occur)

Pyro runs into cover near a broken wall.

Drexyl sprints up to the first derelict cottage.

Fatboy moves up the left side of the farm and takes cover behind a pile of logs.

 Reggie moves up and cover the other side of the cottage.

Topper moves up into cover behind Pyro ready to give him some cover with his scattergun.

Skylar move up the right side of  the farm and takes position  next to the hedge.

Ronnie advance in to cover in the ruins and orders Topper to move up next to Pyro.

Adam move up behind Reggie and gives Drexyl a bunk up to the roof top (order).

Shrimp moves to the other side of the ruins to cover Topper and Pyro's backs.

Ezra follows up behind Skylar taking cover behind a dead tree.

Shayman moves up and takes cover behind a tree.

Turn 2 

The Initiative roll go in the Redclaw's favour this turn.

Fatboy creeps to the end of the cottage and take position at the corner.

 Drexyl takes position next to the chimney and spots movement in the ruins sighting down the optics on his rifle he spots Shrimp but she is out of range.

 Pyro moves into the centre of the farm and takes cover behind the large rock.

 Skylar moves across the gap and takes cover in the ruins.

 Topper skirts the ruined wall and ducks through the old door way taking behind the scrap fence panel to the water tower.

 Ezra runs over to the centre of the ruins past Skylar's position and covers her right flank.

 Shayman moves up behind Pyro taking shelter at the corner of the derelict cottage.

 Reggie runs upto the hedgerow and takes position.

 Ronnie moves up behind Fatboy to back him up.

 Adam catch's upto Reggie and crouch's behind the hedge.

Skylar jumps over the wall and moves to the far corner of the old building.

Turn 3The first two turns where pretty uneventful both sides advancing and take up firing position and getting into cover. Rolling for Initiative The Family win and things start to hot up.

 Drexyl sights down his rifle hunting for any movement. (Enters Watch and Wait 'overwatch').

 Pyro's moves from cover to cover and shelters behind the tree having seen movement ahead.

 Ezra pokes his shotgun over the top of the ruin he's sheltering behind ready for any movement(Watch and Wait).

 Fatboy moves up and spotting Skylar loose's a bolt from his crossbow grazing the scouts arm but causing no injury.

 Feeling the bolt narrowly miss her Skylar loose off her shotgun in the direction it came from and catch Fatboy in the chest knocking him out of the fight.

Quick note on injuries when a member of your gang suffers an injury they are knocked out and positioned on there side. They can be healed by a medic, moved to safety by a comrade or can be removed from play permanently by an enemy moving into contact and effectively slitting there throat whilst ko'd. In one off games this isn't so much an issue will be interesting to see how this works in a campaign.

 Topper moves towards the nearby tree. Drexyl catching sight of the movement opens fire and narrowly misses the gang member. Moving behind the tree Topper unleash's all four barrels of his scatter gun at Reggie missing him completely but by Fluke(Event Card) catches Adam behind the hedge but the thick undergrowth rob the pellets of much of the strength and fails to cause any damage (I though Adam was really going to cop it but he rolled double 1 for his save through! 

 Reggie unable to believe what a close shave he's just had swings hit assault rifle up and fires a burst at Topper knocking him out of the fight.

 Shayman runs along the building and over to Fatboy narrowly avoiding a blast of buckshot from Ezra.

 Adam angry at Topper shooting at him runs over to put the boot in but Topper is made of sterner stuff and remains unconcious. (Adam attempts to take Topper out of the game but failed the dice roll lol!).

 Ronnie moves upto the edge of the ruins he orders Shayman to give Fatboy a slap and get him back in the fight. (Heals Fatboy) Ronnie then prepares a grenade and lobs it at Skylar it clips the ruins and bounce's off over to where Pyro's is taking shelter behind the tree. The grenade is a dud however it explodes with a limp fizz and fails to cause any harm.

Shrimp moves back along the edge of the cottage and fires a shot at Adam kicking Topper behind the hedge but his erratic movement spoils her shot and misses.

Look our for more action in Part 2 later this week.

Across The Dead Earth First game.

Hello folks February already here! Played my first game of 2014 Monday night! Which was you've guessed it was Across The Dead Earth!

Being very impressed by the first few sculpts being shown in preparation for the kickstarter on the 1st March. The guys behind it asked for volunteers on facebook to try out the Beta Version of the rules.

I had a good read of the rules the weekend. It uses 2D6  for most results either requiring you to roll over or under various target numbers to hit, damage, etc.

It has a nice activation sequence where you roll to see who has the initiative at the start of the game then each player then takes it in turn to activate one of there gang members until all members of both gangs have had activated for that turn.

Each player usually can perform 2 actions per turn so can Move, Shoot, Heal, Fight, Aim, Watch and Wait (overwatch) and Hide. I say usually 2 because the mechanics gives the gang leader 3 actions however he can use this to give out orders to other members of your gang allowing you to fire again etc which I give the game a tactical edge to it

Across the Dead Earth also has event cards that can be played during the game ranging from booby traps to re-rolls to hit. I like how this works as well you get 3 at the beginning of the game from a deck. You then get a new 1 each turn. However your only allowed 3 active at any one time so it adds another tactical edge to it

Cover plays a key part and if you stand out in the open prepare to become a bullet magnet!

Book keeping is light and once you get into the mindset of how it works you can play fairly well without referring to the rules to often.

Quick mention on Campaign play. (I haven't tried this out....yet!)

The game has its own campaign system, fighting for territory etc quite similar to necromunda but then all games are similar to some extent.

It has very cool tech trees for a number of classes that you can train your various members down obviously some such as Leader are restricted to 1 per faction but there are Assault, Scout, Medic classes each with various levels and choices with new skills which add bonuses to dice rolls in certain situations or unlocks new fire modes for some weapons.

Everything has been point valued so if you want to you can just create a gang and upgrade the members to an agreed points value and have a scrap if you like.

First Test Game.

Played a grudge match where both sides had to just kill the other side or force them to retire. Fairly straight forward vs match. Deployment was in opposite corners in as if the both gangs where just scouting the area.

 First up is the Adam's family chosen from my large pool of zombie survivors not so much to any theme but more to match the ready to go gangs weapons. From Left to Right Skylar, Reggie, Adam, Ezra and Drexyl.

 The opposing gang The Red Claws Left to Right Shrimp, Shayman, Topper, Ronnie, Fatboy (when he was skinnier lol) and Pyro :D

Plenty of scattered terrain having read Lord Siwoc (Johnny) mention that in his try of the rules more would of been better. If you've not read it here is his great first game report here.

 http://lordsiwoc.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/across-dead-earth-want-to-come.html

Turn 1 rolled for initiative with the Redclaws spotting Adam's gang and advancing.

 Shrimp advances in to the ruins and hugs the cover (use's an action to go into hiding will now receive a bonus against incoming fire).

 Skylar double moves upto the large rock for its extra protection.

 

 Pyro double moves and takes cover in the church ruins.

 Reggie double moves forward to a pile of logs in the clearing.

 Shayman double moves and takes cover.

 Adam double moves and goes into hiding behind the tree (Leaders get 3 actions).

 Fatboy double moves and take position behind the high bushes.

 Drexyl double moves across the back in support of Skylar.

 Ronnie double moves and goes into hiding next to Pyro.

Ezra double times it to Adam's left flank to give the boss some cover.

Topper of the runs and takes cover behind some more ruins.

Not much happening this turn mostly manoeuvring towards each other and preparing to give or receive fire.

 Turn 2.

Initiative still stays with the Red claw's (I'm wondering after having played the game a few nights ago if initiative would be better rolled for each turn again it would make it a bit more tactical and you'd have to think more about your final positions of your figures).

 Fatboy hops over the bushes and hides biding his time.

 Skylar hearing something in the bushes advances around the next out crop of rocks letting loose with her shotgun at Fatboy in the bushes but not drawing any cries of pain as he shrugs off the pellets there power obviously reduced by the dense bushes.

 Ronnie joins Fatboy on the other side of the bushes and holla's at Fatboy to open fire! (Ronnie use's one of his activations ordering Fatboy (although already taking his turn) to open fire on Skylar) but the bolt misses the plucky scout and disappears off into the distance.

 Reggie moves behind the nearest tree and seeing Fatboy's head above the bush lets loose a burst from his assault rifle but just blows holes in the bushes with out scoring any hits.

Pyro moves out of his current place in the ruins hides behind the bush in preparation to leap over next turn.

 Drexyl moves forward and takes cover behind a tree sighting down his Optics he zooms in on Fatboys head and looses off a shot from his assault rifle the bullet catching Fatboy and knocking him out of action.

Shayman double times it hoping to fix Fatboy up and get him back in the battle.

 Adam runs over to the centre of the battlefield and draws a bead on Pyro with his pistol hitting him despite hugging the cover but the bullets is reflected from Pyro's steel hat.

 Shrimp seeing a member of the family break from cover sights down her pistol for signs of movement hoping to blast anybody crossing in fron. (Enters Wait and Watch mode using both her activations).

Ezra advances up behind Adam ready to provide some backup. 

 Topper seeing Shrimp preparing her gun moves across to give her some support on that flank.

Turn 3 (final turn due time running out)

 Topper gets his scatter gun ready gets ready to let rip at anything moving (Watch and Wait).

 Ezra climbs over the hedge and advance into cover to attempt to flank the Red Claws.

 Shrimp tighten's her finger on the trigger (Watch and Wait this stacks adding a bonus to hit).

The Medic! card is played by the Red Claw's but is countered swiftly in turn by The Best Laid Plans... which stops the card from working and is now discarded. 

 

Adam advances and lobs a grenade over the bushes in the hope of catching both the skulking gang members tucked away in the ruins the grenades misses its intended place however  it scatters towards Topper and Shrimp rolling into the wall and detonating catching them both in its blast and knocking Shrimp out.

 The photo didn't turn out but Shayman jumps over the hedge and slaps Fatboy in the face abit bringing him round and back into the fight......

Only for a grenade thrown by Shrimp scattering and catching both Fatboy and Shayman in its spray of shrapnel knocking out Fatboy again.....

Ronnie fed up of the little scout draws his knife and charges into Skylar gaining the upper hand but the blade is deflected.

Reggie advances closer and hides behind a tree

Pyro skirts along the hedge and prepares his flame thrower to open fire.

Drexyl double times it over to the base of the watch tower.

End of Turn 3 and the game.

I enjoyed my first game of Across the Dead Earth immensely the rules are fun and fast. They seem simple at first but give you a lot of choice tactics wise and you have to plan ahead a bit or you could be in for a kicking if not positioned properly. I really like the event cards they add a really nice element.

Its still in beta at the moment and another revision is on the cards there are some things I'd change but they are mainly cosmetic. I'd like to see some extra weapons added but will discuss this with the brains behind it all.

There will be a game Friday night and I'll probably write it up and post the outcome early next week as its my eldest 6th Birthday on Sunday so it will pub and party time!