Yuma Proving Ground Game 3 - AAR

Game 03 - The Recovery

The Marie Anne pulled alongside the rickety wooden jetty and the passengers breathed a sigh of relief, grateful to have arrived at their destination without any serious mishap. Well if you don’t count the fez toting monkey stealing the Captains hearing aid and dropping it over the side.

Hehh, what did you say, can’t hear you, speak up, that was about the limit of the conversation from the man at the wheel until he shouted, loud enough to wake the dead, and God forbid that should actually happen, “we’re here, all ashore who are going ashore”.

The monkey, I think his name is Bob took off the fez and held it upside down, “he’s not hoping for a tip is he, muttered Tug, he’ll get a length of my chain round his scrawny neck if he is.”

Bob put the fez back on his head.

Katie had been quiet and withdrawn all the way up the river, she had a good idea of what they might have to face once they were ashore but as the boat hit the jetty with a loud thunk she started to issue instructions.

That’s our objective, the small house beyond the fields, you can see it has some blue tarpaulins on the roof. There’s only one room inside, the tin box is buried about 12” down, it’s in the corner opposite the door. One man can carry it quite easily, it only contains a few SD cards, and some paper work but it’s all sealed inside a luxury chocolate biscuit box. Don’t open it, there are no biscuits inside and I don’t want to contaminate the contents or ourselves. There were some very strange things went on here, this was addressed to Big Willie and Tug, they nodded – warily. Ulrika,Tank and Angie were well aware of the danger but kept it to themselves, no good would come of speaking their fears out loud.

Willie (White hair) was leading with Tug and Ulrika following him. Their job was to watch the right flank and Katie (yellow top), Tank and Angie would advance straight towards the objective.

We played this game over a video link, the Mad Lord Snapcase controlling the electronic gadgetry from his lair in the bowels of Snapcase Hall. Big Willie, Tug and Ulrika were under his direct control, the other three were mine but his Lordship moved them around on the table but under my strict direction, I didn’t intend being cannon fodder again.

Once away from the confines of the hill by the river we took up a more open order, cunning as a fox Ulrika was stationed by Snappers on the small hill, just behind Willie and Tug, she was on alert, ready to give covering fire at a moments notice.

And the moment came sooner than expected, because as Big Willie approached the walled compound the sound of baying and howling rent the air as a pack of feral dogs burst into sight. They had been sleeping in shade, hidden from the hot sun but Willie’s heavy foot steps awoke them. Although to be fair Tug was swinging his chain idly around his head, trying to swat the flies. So it could have been the whooshing noise that attracted their attention.

Nice doggy Willie cajoled hopefully, wondering if it would fetch a stick for him, but looking round he couldn’t see any sticks. Shoot the bugger before it bites you, Tug growled, then he issued a stern command to the dog “SIT”.

Hopefully this dramatic shot shows our predicament, the dogs run like the wind and were soon amongst the Vagabonds, snarling, growling and snapping their teeth, looking for a good meal no doubt.

A more prosaic picture to show the overall situation just before everyone opened fire and demonstrated the effectiveness of being “Alert”.

Ulrika on the hill opened fire with her sub machine gun and shot two of the hounds, Tank and Katie both took out one each. Angie at the rear was busy trying to avoid hitting Tank and she missed the dog she shot at. Big Willie never liked dogs and he killed one of them with his bare hands, didn’t even blink, although it’s hard to tell behind those dark glasses.

The last dog fell to Tug, I told you to “SIT” he muttered. Next time….”OBEY”!

Dog training lessons are short, sharp and permanent using the Tug method.

After the blood bath with the nice doggies the team move forward and take up positions close to the target house with the blue baggage on the roof.

Having listened to Bullshott’s advice everyone goes on alert, They aren’t sure if the shooting will have alerted anyone or anything to their presence.

The house is quiet, too damn quiet, someone has to move forward and put a toe in the hornets nest. It’s your turn, Big Willie says to Katie, Katie looks at Tank, then Angie and says “This is my call” and she advances cautiously.

Immediately 3 wasteland scum above the parapets, they have been waiting in ambush since the sound of firing woke them from an alcohol induced torpor. Bleary eyed they may be but an ambush is an ambush and they’ll shoot first.

On reflection I’m not sure this is the case, I know there’s a section on ambushes but I couldn’t find it in the heat of battle, my memory was; ambushes go first, but Alert interrupts actions. Anyway we let them shoot first.

This is the situation and I only had a poor view of the field when we discussed it. My three characters are on the left Angie far left, Tank in the middle and Katie has moved one action forward. All of them are in the open.

Remember what I said about cannon fodder.

His Lordship is a survivor of countless actions in bandit country and has found some very nice cover for his point men with Ulrika having an elevated firing position and a sub machine gun to take best advantage of it.

This punk opened the batting and Angie went down under a hail of bullets.

Yes I know he has a flamethrower but I’m still getting to grips with normal shooting without complicating things further.

Then Katie was hit with a burst of fire from one of the guy’s further back on the rooftop. The last man thankfully missed but it’s not looking good, two men down and the fight hasn’t really started.

There was a forth man who had been out of sight in the initial deployment but he moved into view (bottom left) and now it’s our turn to fire back.

Big Willie opens fire with his smg and puts 3 rounds into the skull toting Savage, the purple haired one glances over his shoulder seeing his comrade drop. Bugger is all that goes through his mind when he realises that the only way off the roof is down the stairs in full view of Big Willie and his Smg or a long drop.

Tank raises his assault rifle and fires, not the rifle but the grenade launcher located below the main barrel of the rifle. There’s a small puff of smoke, followed shortly by an explosion.

A direct hit, this blows the red and black haired Savage clean off the roof and kills both him and the other one hiding behind the wall.

See how you like them busted caps Tank shouts. (That's me speaking Merican)

Ulrika had the last say, she put a number of rounds into the last wasteland scummer and he went down to join the rest of his unsavoury crew.

Tug hadn’t fired in the last exchange of shots, and so he moved forward quickly to the target house. The door was hanging off its hinge’s, I expect the last visitor didn’t have a key, a quick search revealed the biscuit tin buried where Katie said it would be.

Rejoining the rest of the team, he was just in time to see Angie and Katie recover from their wounds due to the magical healing quality of medi-kits. Wille was shouting hey look what I’ve found $500 worth of salvage and 2 Red Dot Sights. That’s not so much said Tug as he produced the biscuit tin, then coyly asked, what might this be worth holding out an object. About $750 was Willies reply but what’s that in your pocket.

I’m not sure but there was a pulsating blob of something in there and I took this from it. Must be worth something……$5,000 muttered Big Willie who knew about these things.

Being careful to avoid triggering any further confrontations the guys retreated as quickly as possible to the boat, the deaf Captain and the fez wearing monkey.

Let’s get away from here before anyone comes to investigate the noise Katie commanded and they motored down stream taking turns on the bilge pump as they went, wooden boats are prone to leak and this one leaked like a sieve.

Once within phone signal range Katie sent a text to Joe Diamond the Editor of the Global Tribune.

“Mission successful, recovered the evidence”. “Only light opposition, a pack of dogs and some looters but nothing to substantiate our previous visit.”

Using the mobile phone network to transmit this information was a major mistake, other parties were able to intercept it and initiate action, but that’s for the future.

I was hoping they would encounter something abnormal and be able to collect evidence to corroborate their previous visit, Tug’s Anomaly doesn’t really count, antibiotics will clear it up in no time at all. Without substantive evidence of any abnormal activity, there’s nothing to tie the Yuma Proving Ground to the Mojave Facility.

Hopefully once the box is opened in a sealed laboratory and we can examine the contents then connections between the two can be established and the story printed.

Next stop Canada.

Yuma Proving Ground Game 3 - Background

After the incident with Captain Andy Donovan and a shared near death experience, Katie Monk has decided, enough is enough, sod the Government, sod the Global News and sod the consequences, she’s going back to the Mojave where it all began 5 years ago, and he’s going to Canada, following up a new lead.

You might wonder what began 5 years ago, well it's a bit complicated because I'm trying to tie together  some games I played 5 years ago with this current story line and my head is starting to hurt, anyway this was the background to the previous episode, it may help or probably not.

https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2023/09/yuma-proving-ground-game-2-background.html

Sorry to ramble a little but I’ve found some nice Shiraz, Mrs V doesn’t drink midweek, and as I believe wine goes off within 6 hours of the cork being drawn I’m having to dispose of it as quickly as possible.

The game will be played out over the internet with my friend from Devon, The Mad Lord Snapcase, he will be in his bunker below Snapcase Hall and we'll use his terrain and figures.

Katie is making the trip back to the Mojave Dessert and has hired some of her old bodyguards. Some of these have appeared in the story so far and some have not, but if you have the attention span of a goldfish, as I have, it won’t matter who is whom.

The Girls.

Katie Monk has changed out of her business suit and is impersonating Laura Croft, fit and hard, she’s the one on the left, Angie centre and Ulrika right you’ve already met in the rescue of Alice. These are all the Mad Lords figures and it’s interesting how similar our painting is of the figures. Well similar in colouring in, his are more of an artists standard where as mine are more of your average 10 year old.

The Boys

On the left we have Big Willie Snapcase who is the brother of Fat Willie, Fat Willie couldn’t make it to the Mojave because he gets a nose bleed flying and there wasn’t enough time to drive. Big Willie had an exciting experience down a mine one time when he was 16 and his dark brown hair turned white. He doesn’t talk about it much but if you buy Fat Willie a few beers he might let you in on the secret. Of course it might cost you quite a few beers because the brothers are close, but what else are you going to spend your money on.

Tugger Doug in the centre has crisscrossed America driving a big eighteen wheeler but the real reason he's called Tugger,  is because a Tugger is someone who pulls a van, in his case a 30’ Airstream the iconic aluminium caravan and probably not what you were thinking.

Tank on the right doesn’t suffer from nose bleeds and so flies to joins the expedition carrying Rosie.

Rosie in case you were wondering is the whopping big gun he takes everywhere. He doesn’t need a concealed licence to carry Rosie because he would be hard put to conceal her, unless she was in Tuggers Airstream.

This is their destination, a disused facility in the Mojave that I had the privilege to play over back in 2018 when I visited Snapcase Hall for the second time and this story was conceived. I had to go back a second time to avoid the court case associated with the missing Snapcase silver, we managed to negotiate an equitable settlement. 

I returned the silver and didn't mention Ms Spankhurst, and certainly not Spankhursts mother who was confined in one of the attic rooms and hadn't been outside in years. The least said about that the better.

The trip up the Mojave River had been uneventful except for sightings of some very strange sea creatures that shouldn’t really have been there but as the Marie Anne docked, Katie Monk’s thoughts went back 5 years, to the story that she would forever think of as “The Scoop”. It started like this.

https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/devlam-in-desert-scoop.html

Following this escapade in the desert when Katie and Liam saw things that should not have been possible they were able to escape the area with their lives but not much else. The story was written and posted on my Blog but US Homeland Security stepped in and it was "Taken Down"

That’s how things have been for 5 years, the only evidence available to the general public was Daisuke story also posted on my Blog. Again the Blog was hacked by US Intelligence Agencies shortly after the post and parts of the story and some of the pictures were redacted. Have a look for yourself if you need verification.

https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/red-sparrow-down.html

Anyway at one point they thought they wouldn’t make it out alive and so hid all the evidence they had collected in a tin box and left this on site. It’s this tin box that Katie will attempt to recover in the next instalment of The Yuma Proving Ground.

After their incursion the Government came down heavily on Joe Diamond and the Global Tribune, with nothing to back up the word of his Reporters there was no story. Security was tightened in the Mojave area and he didn’t authorise a further expedition.

In light of the recent events in the Yuma Proving Ground, the Globe’s owner, at the instigation of the State Governor has requested Diamond to resurrect the investigation into the Mojave Forbidden Zone to see if there’s any connection between the two. In addition to this there have been constant rumours of similar Governmental activity around the world, the most notable is in Canada, and Captain Andy Donovan has been despatched north to see if there’s any truth in it.

The Shrine

The Shrine

There’s a small village in the Nezuko forest on the mainland of Honshu that has an importance out of all relation to its size.

The village only consists of a few dwellings.

A substantial store house because in spite of its small size this is a very wealth village.

It’s often visited by Holy men who always receive a warm welcome, Kami is explaining to Masatani how she cooks the mid day meal for travellers, as her idle husband Oe looks on, slowly sipping his Saki.

Korimi would like to receive the same warm welcome but as he is digging a new latrine for the village he knows that the smell will delay that welcome……a few weeks at least.

Inside one of the houses the local lord Okamoto Ichiro is in deep discussion with Ichi. Ichi often passes as his wife, sometimes his concubine and some time his housekeeper, she is none of these things.

Mate is also preparing food for some of the local workmen, she stands no backchat from these fellows, especially Inori who seems to be waving his weapon rather vigorously in her direction.

The village wealth is based on a shrine to one of the forest gods, the shrine is guarded night and day by well armed men.

As you can see the village is only small but as I explained very wealthy.

If it wasn’t for the armed men guarding the shrine and Inori’s men guarding the entrance to the village you might think it was ripe for a bold man to enter and remove the wealth without too much effort.

But you would be wrong, not having counted on the seriously scary Sorcerer Yoshifumi Susomi who lives in another of the houses with his Geisha friend Chiyo.

You might also be wondering how, if there are only 3 houses where the rest of the inhabitants sleep.

Well you’ve heard of hot bedding in modern day Tokyo, this village is where the concept was devised.

Hirano Nagayasu has heard of the Sorcerer Yoshifumi Susomi, tall tales don’t scare him, but wealth does attract him, so he’s decided to pay the village a visit and see which of the stories is true.

Two guards approach Hirano to see if he is friend or foe.

Kill them Hirano instructs his two most proficient retainers Katsua Takenori and Katagiri Katsumoto.

So that would be foe then!

The fight goes back and forth, well it’s just back for the guards and forth for the retainers. Kazu is pushed back into an obstacle and is cut down unceremoniously by Katagiri but the other guard puts up a spirited fight. Fighting desperately for his life Shoji retreats back and back, parrying each cut and thrust but he’s in dire straits.

The noise from the fight has alerted everyone else in the village, there is confusion amongst the inhabitants. Inori the commander of the village guard sees his men fighting for their lives and wonders how he can avoid joining in.

The two Samurai guarding the shrine believe their duty is to stay at their post come what may, and so don’t move forward.

Okamoto Ichiro and Ichi come out to see what is going on, Hirano rushes forward to attack Okamoto who is obviously a man of wealth and position, someone whom he can engage in combat as an equal. Hidemoto sees Ichi take up a fighting stance and flap her fan in his direction. This confuses Hidemoto, she should run away but shows no sign of doing so.

As Hirano tests Okamoto Ichiro’s defence he realises he is the superior swordsman, however he hasn’t remained alive in these troubled times by being rash. One fatal cut is all it takes for a man to die and he doesn’t intend it to be him, not today.

Ichi appears to be in trouble, she has fallen back before the pick on a stick that Hidemoto is wielding, but she retains her confidence that her training will help her beat the crude fighting style of the man she is facing.

Hirano’s retainers want to help their Lord but know if he perceives they have impugned his honour by implying he needs help, there will be consequences.

Consequences they don’t want to risk.

Swift as a striking snake Hirano slices through Okamoto’s leg and then plunges his katana into his chest. There is some smug satisfaction in knowing he was right. Okamoto’s defence was suspect.

Hidemoto is starting to be worried, his initial success against this frail woman has failed to end the fight and even with the help of Suma she is holding them back. Worse than that, she isn’t even slightly out of breath and he’s panting like a dog on heat.

Having killed the guard, Katagiri has rushed along the street towards the shrine, he hopes to be the first to fight the Samurai there. This will bring him great renown and he hopes reward from his Lord. He’s a rash young man with no caution, this might be his undoing.

A close up of Ichi, her fan is edged with sharpened steel blades. Centuries later a Birmingham gang called the Peaky Blinders would steal her ideas.

In the background the Sorcerer Yoshifumi Susomi has also emerged from a small house close to the shrine. He chants a spell of summoning. The chant reaches a crescendo, light flashes all around him and a pale green spectre appears above his head. He has summoned a Wraith.

Everyone reacts to the Wraith.

It turns out it’s not as scary as I thought it would be.

Kami shouts to her child playing in the street to get inside the house, and together they go into the building, followed very closely by Masatani. He reasons that a religious man shouldn’t get involved in street fighting, it is far beneath his dignity, besides that Wraith is a bit worrying.

Most of the characters involved in the story just take it in their stride. I’m a little disappointed by this response, I had great hopes of the figure.

Yoshifumi Susomi is exhausted by the summoning and can’t find the energy to direct it to attack anyone.

Hirano wanted to engage the Sorcerer in combat but he too is exhausted from his combat with Okamoto and can’t jog fast enough. He could have tried to run but that’s beneath his dignity.

Katagiri as I’ve said, is young and foolish, so he charges straight into combat with the Sorcerer. Yoshifumi fights back but the summoning has exhausted him and very quickly Katagiri’s steel finds an opening in his soft flesh and he falls beneath the blade of the proficient swordsman. As soon as the last breath leaves his body his summoning disappears back into the void and the whole raison d’etre for the game is gone.

Finally one of the guards from the shrine charges forward and attacks Hirano, the other one still maintains his vigil.

Seeing his paymaster killed and hearing the Wraith’s demonic scream as his Summoner is cut down, Inori decides he might as well find other employment and he and the last remaining gate guard leave the area.

After a combat that has taken forever to resolve, Shoje is finally cut down. Korimi the latrine cutter looks on in dismay but wisely decides not to intervene.

I think there might be some problem with my understanding of the laws of probability because although I’m trying to get some ebb and flow in a sword fight this one went on for about 6 turns with 2 rounds per turn, At one point Katsua was rolling 11 dice against Shoje’s 2 and still he refused to be defeated.

There’s a time when honour becomes secondary to survival and Hirano realizes that Kobiyashi the guard is a very proficient swordsman but he has the added advantage of wearing full armour. He is happy to allow his two retainers to assist him in defeating this opponent.

Meanwhile Ichi has finally got into her stride and is forcing her opponents to retreat before her ferocious attacks.

The small child in the street seems to have been forgotten in the excitement of the contact.

Kobiyashi is slowly loosing ground to the combined attacks of 3 opponents and his armour is taking quite a beating from their attacks. Hirano shouts above the din of combat and offers Kobiyashi quarter but he disdainfully refuses.

Try as she might Ichi can’t seem to land a killing blow and she is getting tired fighting two opponents.

The other guard Shida Takeshi decides that he should support Kobiyashi and he runs forward….slowly, but is met by Tada Zumi and Katsun Takenori. Katsun has run all the way from the village entrance after finally despatching the guard there. Together they make short work of Shida.

Yet again Hirano offers Kobiyashi quarter and this time with the odds so against him, he accepts.

He knows this will not enhance his reputation and employment with a new lord might be had to find, he contemplates his future mournfully.

Ichi might have been tiring but with a flurry of blows she finally cuts down her two opponents and as Katsua runs towards her she decides discretion is always the better part of valour and quickly runs away.

With her lipstick slightly smeared she makes her way out of the village, the only question now is; how will she get her revenge?

Well the other question is; will Hirano find the treasure in the shrine?

And I suppose a final question is; will he escape with the treasure if he finds it and if Ichi doesn’t get her revenge?

I guess there is the question of; who is Ichi?

You might have some other questions as well but these should keep me busy planning my next game.

Which of course will be something completely different.