A friend and I have decided to play through a version of the Paradiso Campaign, using the mission structures and XP system to forge a campaign of our own. Due to the difficulties of getting four regular players together we've decided to play through a chunk of the missions ourselves with a narrative link between them, rather than the branching campaign. As I'm fielding Tohaa, much of Paradiso would feel a bit odd if played 'as is', so I'm putting a different narrative spin on the missions to allow us to still play the missions as written.
Some changes will be made to how Paradiso runs to fit our armies and the type of games we enjoy. However over the course of the campaign it will be my own Tohaa army against a Haqqislam force, with a lot of emphasis on the spec ops units. We preloaded our Spec Ops with 3XP to make them a bit more interesting game one - I chose a Hacking Device to give my special operative a bit more usefulness in game one, and my opponent chose one also for his Hafza based spec ops character.Chapter One: Mission 101 - Cloak and Dagger
Tohaa and Haqqislam forces face off across a deserted urban area at the outskirts of Hadley's Hope City, in USAriadna territory, planet Dawn. Three data containers have been jettisoned by the Hassassin undercover vessel 'Rawdha' - unfortunately neither side knows what the data containers have been loaded with - navigational and operating data from the ships computer core are in two of the capsules, with the third containing as-yet unknown intelligence that both sides are keen to recover and analyse. Local emergency services have evacuated this part of the city to deal with the wreckage from the crashed ship, and it's into this vacuum the two aggressors deploy...
Read the prologue for the campaign here.
We are simply playing Mission 101: Data Recovery here across an urban board setup to look rundown and very much on the fringes of a major city.
+++++++++++++++++++++
The Forces:
HAQQISLAM
GROUP 1 (Regular: 9/Irregular: 1):
SALADIN Lieutenant Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (37)
GHULAM Hacker (Hacking Device) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 25)
GHULAM Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 14)
GHULAM Panzerfaust, Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 16)
AVICENNA Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (32)
NASMAT Electric Pulse. (3)
NAJJARUN Engineer Rifle + Light Shotgun, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife. (17)
BARID Hacker (Hacking Device) Rifle + Marker / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 26)
HUSAM (Hacking Device) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, Knife. (17 | 3XP)
RAGIK Hacker (Hacking Device) Rifle + Light Shotgun / Pistol, CCW. (0.5 | 42)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (11)
GROUP 2 (Regular: 2/Irregular: 1):
KAMEEL (EVO Repeater) Electric Pulse. (0.5 | 13)
DJANBAZAN HMG / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 36)
YUAN YUAN Chain Rifle, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Shock CCW. (11)
5 SWC | 300 Points
TOHAA
GROUP 1 (Regular: 10/Irregular: 0):
ECTROS Lieutenant Viral Combi Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, CCW. (50)
KAMAEL Hacker (Defensive Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Zero-V Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (15)
SAKIEL Viral Combi Rifle, Swarm Grenades / Pistol, Knife. (26)
KAMAEL Hacker (Defensive Hacking Device) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (1 | 18)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Swarm Grenades, Zero-V Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (18)
GAO-RAEL Spitfire / Pistol, CCW. (1.5 | 38)
HATAIL (Hacker) Combi Rifle / Pistol, Knife. (12 | 3XP)
MAKAUL Heavy Flamethrower, Swarm Grenades, Zero-V Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Viral CCW. (18)
GORGOS Spitfire, 2 Flammenspeer, Nanopulser +1 Chaksa Periferical / Viral CCW. (2 | 87)
CHAKSA PERIFERICAL Light Shotgun, Flash Grenades / Pistol, Knife.
5.5 SWC | 300 Points
+++++++++++++++++++++
Pre-game
The Tohaa managed to anticipate the movements of the
Haqqislam rescue team and won the initiative roll forcing the Haqq forces onto
the back foot and into the least advantageous firing positions in the urban
sprawl of Hadley's Hope... however the presence of the legendary Lion of the
Desert and Strategos Level 3 meant that the Haqq forces snatched a fragment of
the advantage back from the alien force by counter deploying an Asaswira and
Djanbazan to meet the threat in the empty streets of Hadley's Hope.
Turn One: Haqqislam
Turn one began with a pair of Yuan Yuan mercenaries dropping
behind the Tohaa lines, with both space pirates scattering wildly off course.
The first Yuan Yuan died after wandering into the path of a Makaul heavy
flamethrower who gleefully killed the pirate on the spot as he landed (badly).
The second pirate dropped right in front (and I mean an inch or two) of the waiting
Gorgos and Chaksa, who both failed to kill him in ARO.
A second order, a second
ARO, and the Gorgos again failed to damage the Yuan Yuan with its Nanopulsar,
however the Chaksa riddled the pirate with buckshot from his shotgun and he
fell down unconscious on the spot.
A badly placed suppression fire lane from the Djanbazan HMG
a top a distant building, designed to pin the Gorgos in place accidentally fell
over the prone Yuan Yuan and he promptly disappeared in a red mist of high
velocity, automatic friendly fire.
On the other side of the board, the Ragik hacker dropped in
and hit his target, landing right next to data capsule on the Haqq right flank.
However he fumbled his hacking attempts and failed to gain access to the
device.
On the other side, the Barid hacker crawled out of cover
behind another of the capsules and similarly managed to forget his access codes
with the data capsule remaining inaccessible.
Turn One: Tohaa
The Gao-Rael trident shuffled about, with the Gao-Rael
drawing a bead on the Djanbazan pinning the Gorgos in place - despite a -9
modifier to hit, the Gao-Rael planted a shot through the chest of the
HMG-toting soldier who fell unconscious behind the low wall he was crouching
behind.
On the other flank, the Sakiel trident moved into position
to remove the crouching Ragik next to the data capsule. An exchange of gunfire
followed, with the Sakiel scoring two Viral Combi Rifle hits on the hacker
whose brain melted as the effects of the viral ammo ran amok in his body,
shooting wildly in ARO and missing. An on looking Ghulam trooper with a
Panzerfaust shot and missed the Tohaa as they passed under his crosshairs,
merely damaging some masonry on the building opposite.
The Kameal hacker with the Sakiel trident then succeeded in
accessing the capsule, however found it was merely inconsequential data from
the ships nav computer - however the hacker quickly determined the correct
capsule was on the opposite flank, unknown to the Haqq commander, Saladin! A
tactical retreat back to cover was ordered and the Sakiel team hotfooted it
back to safety by one of the human hab blocks.
With a number of orders left over, and heavy enemy troop
concentration around the required data capsule the order was given for the
Gorgos Squad to move out double-time and clear out the hostiles to allow for
Operative Ricarii to recover the capsule next turn.
The Gorgos' first victim was the Haqqislam special forces
operative. Posing as the Asawira, he unfortunately drew the giant's attention
who unloaded a pair of Flamenspear shots into the disguised operative rendering
him unconscious. Next he left a pair of smoking shoes where the Panzerfaust
Ghulam had been standing, striding to stand unscathed behind a human police
vehicle and directly over the middle objective - however he had failed to
remove the Barid from the third capsule as instructed.
+++
Turn Two: Haqqislam
Sending her Hazmat servant into the danger zone, the
mercenary Avicenna revived the unconscious Djanbazan with her incredible
medical abilities. Feeling indestructible, the newly revived soldier lept to
his feet with his beloved heavy machine gun blazing! Despite the spray of
bullets he only managed to chip off a single wound from the Gorgos before
taking Spitfire round to the temple that rendered him unconscious and bleeding
for second time in the game - much to the annoyance of Avicenna! By now she had
diverted her attention to the dying Hafza Special Forces operative for a
successful revival.
On the other side of the table the Barid hacker gulped hard
as the huge alien life form dispatched his brother in arms with ease! Deciding
the spear tip of the Tohaa threat was now aiming for the middle capsule, the
Barid info expert carefully aimed his Marker weapon and expertly dropped a
repeater right on target and easily within the zone of control of the Gorgos -
frustratingly out of line of fire for the Tohaa behemoth!
Channeling the remaining two hackers, Saladin ordered they
attempt to immediately gain control of the Gorgos and turn the weapon on its
comrades. Despite the efforts of both Haqqislam hackers, the opposing Tohaa
hackers used their defensive hacking devices to great effect and blocked the best
efforts of the Haqqislam offensive hacking attempts - narrowly preventing the
Ghulam hacker from assuming full control of the Gorgos in one nail-biting
counter-assault across the data streams crisscrossing the battlefield.
Turn Two: Tohaa
With the Haqqislam hostiles thinned down, the Tohaa forces
pushed their advantage and attempted to snatch the data whilst the opportunity
presented itself.
With the Gorgos ordered to hold position and tie down the
center of the combat zone, the Gao-Rael trident began advancing towards the
target capsule... and the prone Barid hacker. Under the cover of Makaul smoke
grenades, the team got into position in cover around the capsule. Using a gap
between a building and his smoke column, the Makaul fired a lethal burst of
flames that engulfed the prone hacker before himself taking a shotgun blast to
the forehead that knocked him unconscious and bleeding behind a large crate.
Special Operative Ricarii took advantage of the Makaul's
sacrifice and ran through the smoke cloud to access the capsule's control
panel. Sadly the particles in the zero-vis smoke cloud simply blinded and
confused Ricarii who took a massive five orders to finally get the capsule
downloaded and stashed in his utility belt.
With just two orders left, a last ditch attempt to upload
the data to the Tohaa vessel in orbit above the city went badly wrong, with the
transmission becoming garbled and corrupted as atmospheric conditions conspired
against the Tohaa forces!
+++
Turn Three: Haqqislam
With the Hazmat no longer available, the prone Djanbazan
flickered back to consciousness just long enough to attempt to activate his regeneration
ability... however the previous shot to his temple was more serious than it
looked and despite his best efforts he unfortunately succeeded in simply
stopping his own heart by mistake. A garbled curse in Arabic could be heard
across the battlefield before it was suddenly cut off by an equally loud
choking sound...
Meanwhile the Ghulam hacker moved around a high wall and
into the zone of control of the enemy spec ops trooper in an attempt to use
anti-hacker protocols. Narrowly winning the battle of wills (thank the prophet
for Evo repeaters...) and Operative Ricarii dropped unconscious without warning
with a faint smell of ozone and the sound of sizzling fat.
Avicenna, clearly upset at the stupidity of her HMG wielding
patient, decided to take matters into her own hands and advanced on the prone
enemy hacker to kill it whilst the opportunity presented itself. Dancing past
an ARO shot from the Gorgos she sprayed bullets across the unconscious Tohaa
soldier failing to connect even once.
Even the Gao-Rael was unable to hit the doctor as she danced away
through the gunfire directed at her by the Tohaa forces.
The Hafza spec ops soldier carefully drew aim over the
Gorgos, lying where he'd been revived in the doorway of a large empty building.
However despite taking careful aim, the rapid firing Spitfire from the Gorgos
managed to deflect the accuracy of the shots with both combatants left unharmed
in a cloud of dust from the missed rounds.
Turn Three: Tohaa
Acknowledging the human healer as a potential threat, the
Gao-Rael hunter leveled his Spitfire for a second attempt to neutralize the
threat, succeeding with style.
Fearing another attempt to possess the mighty Gorgos, it
used its Spitfire to utterly destroy the Marker weapon's repeater before
advancing towards the suspected location of the human commander. Seeing the
advancing threat, the Haqq Hafza switched his aim to the Chaksa servant and
double tapped the alien minion before the Gorgos giant obliterated him in a
deadly hail of gunfire.
Advancing on the small shack housing Saladin, he swung his
Spitfire to shoot the crouching hacker Ghulam to his right - landing four
deadly wounds at close quarters before striding to the window next to the human
commander.
A vicious exchange of Nanopulsar and Spitfire ensued with
both fighters left standing unharmed! However a previously unnoticed Ghulam
trooper with a grenade launcher took the opportunity and popped a grenade at
the blue giant knocking off another wound from the colossus. Ignoring the
grenade blast, the Gorgos focused on the legendary human fighter in the
building taking a wound from the Lion in the process with another lobbed
grenade removing the final plates from its symbiont armour.
Expecting oblivion to come quickly, the Gorgos hefted the
Spitfire one last time and dispatched Saladin in a hail of bullets. The brave
Chaksa attempted to block the firing line of the Ghulam grunt, but failed with
a final grenade blowing both the Gorgos and the servant to bits! With a low
grunt the Gorgos sagged, all signs of life disappearing from its fluid
spattered face... however it had bought a comprehensive victory for the Tohaa
forces in the face of stiff resistance from the human soldiers!
Tohaa Win: 3 - 1
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