Crown Guard vs. Eugenics Brigade

[Saker]

My home crew is actually going for BASH tomorrow. It's my first table top and GM play. I had them choose an Axis & Allies team, since I bought the BASH bundle. Then, they picked characters, so they are a detachment of the Crown Guard. I have Excalibur, Espirit & Repulse.

I'm going to run something in September 1940 at the end of the Battle of Britain. This will be the first time that the characters have met each other. Their mission is to follow a Luftwaffe air group back to their airfield and destroy it. The plan is for Repulse to carry a White M3 Scout Car where Excalibur & Espirit will sit and fly behind the air group.

I'm going to start by giving the Repulse player the stats on fighters and bombers, and say that he has been kicking them around in the morning before the briefing and his lunch. Primarily so he understands how he compares to them in a fight.

Then, the briefing of the mission and introduction of the first three Crown Guard members. They estimate the flight from Dover to Essen, Germany should be about 1.5 hours at the pace of the Heinkel HE 111 bombers. The return can be done is less than an hour at Repulse pace.

Depending on how stealthy Repulse can stay, they could initially get kicked around by fighters or eventually targeted by AA flak cannons who call into command. The portal guy starts his 1 hour prep.

I want to give the PCs some time to kick around the airfield and minions, but then a big light in a hangar announces the arrival of the brigade. It will be dusk.

I would like a slight advantage to the heroes being their first encounter, but I would like to involve Thunderclap and Battleaxe and maybe an Ubermensch. I'm thinking of using some Flying Squad or Waffen SS to cover their escape.

I'm concerned about balance. How many Hero Points should I give? How would you suggest I staggeror restrucure the encounters?

I run this tomorrow Thursday night at 6pm for three hours, so give your advice quick.

thanks in advance
cheers

[Saker]

Finally, we played last night. It went well enough for the players to want to do it again, so success.

The game started introducing the characters as the newly formed Crown Guard with Excalibur, L'Esprit & Repulse. The mission was to follow a Luftwaffe air group back to Calais and destroy the airfield. Repulse would carry a White M3 Scout Car for Excalibur & L'Esprit.

They chose to put themselves between the Luftwaffe and the setting sun using Repulse's Military skill, so they only encountered initial resistance when they got feet dry facing the coastal anti-aircraft flak cannons. The Germans hit 2 of 5 times, but Repulse's Force Field absorbed everything.

They set themselves down in a woods to let L'Esprit go scouting. This character is unstoppable: Ghost Form 3, Invisibility 5 and Flight 1. And he is effectively Agility 3 and Brawn 4 in this form with his telekinesis. He took a half hour to scout the airfield and the surrounding infantry division, took another half hour disable the fighters, and took another half hour to find his way back to the group. By this time it was dark with a slim moon in the clear sky.

They did not remember the timing of the one hour for the Eugenics Brigade portal opening after a flying car was spotted by AA, but they sort of guessed when it started to rain... harder and harder. They asked if they had a Thor, and I didn't give them intel.

I gave everyone Hero Points up to 40 which is the point total of Thunderclap. He didn't receive any but the 2 setbacks per hero pool that I got.

Thunderclap was quickly abbreviated to Thunder due to the clap jokes and attacked them with lighting. Repulse evaded the area effect and set the car down behind the bomber row. Excalibur used the car's machine gun, but it was Fall Auto area effect, which Thunder easily evaded. L'Esprit got away from the car, because he was scared of the lightning energy damage.

Then we entered the second phase of the combat. Thunder attacking Repulse and Excalibur with his lightning with the first hit scorching the car. Battleaxe arrived attempting to call out Excalibur. Repulse started throwing bombers at Battleaxe and Thunder with marginal success. Excalibur threw his sword (variable special attack to add range) attacking first Thunder then Battleaxe with marginal success. L'Esprit was relatively ineffective, because his Flight 1 prevented him from closing on either of the villians. He threw more bombers.

The next phase of combat started after Excalibur got hit with 120+ points of damage from Battleaxe's x9 chop and exploding die roll and the knockback landed him at Ubermench's feet.

Excalibur and Ubermench squared off and fought toe-to-tow for several pages before L'esprit finally targeted Ubermench, because he wasn't moving much. Thunder used Daze on Repulse and then finally used telekinese to grab him. Battleaxe switched to Repulse. If it wasn't for using Quick-Thinking to refresh his Force Field, Repulse would have been toast.

The next phase started when L'espirit finally controlled Ubermench and attacked Battleaxe. Excalibur attacked Battleaxe. Battleaxe attacked both of them, not really liking Ubermench and having a reason to whack him. Then Repulse succeeded in grabbing Battleaxe's Jotun Axe and depowering him. Thunder had to drop Repulse to return Battleaxe to full power with his telekinese. By this time, Ubermensh had 2 hits left and retreated. Honestly, it was late, and I wasn't using all the setbacks that Uber had to use. Excalibur connected with a huge hit and knocked Thunder out. Repulse then regrabbed Battleaxe's axe, after a L'Esprit controlled Battleaxe torched Uber.

The fight lasted about 3 hours and a lot of pages. They trashed the airfield using the fuel and ammo depots and returned home with the Jotun Axe.

Comments:
L'Esprit is nigh unstoppable having only three tactical limitations: Flight 1, only Mind 3 and a weakness to energy attacks. If Flight or Mind were one higher, it would make a huge difference. However, in this combat, he didn't make a difference until the end when he turned the battle. Also L'Esprit and Rene are misspelled in the book, because my French-Canadian player caught it. He otherwise loves the character.

Repulse is fairly balanced but his Force Field makes him very tough. Having never played before, I underestimated Force Field vs Armor or Deflect. The player loves him too. I think the character missed writing Skillful 2, because the Repulse has way too many skills.

Excalibur is very simple. I allowed him to use range and area with his variable special attack to jazz it up. The player enjoyed the background but was relatively little bored in stages of the combat with the lack of combat choices. Hero points really helped him stay in the fight.

Thunderclap almost has too many combat choices and has very thin defenses for a 40 point character. Although his extra Acrobatics kept him safe from the area effect thrown bombers.

Battleaxe is a monster with a x9 Damage attack and everything in between. His major weakness is losing his axe. I ignored the limitation being on Germany's soil, because it didn't matter compared to losing the axe. They dodged the Immobilization, and Confusion was less powerful than I thought.

Ubermencsh really suffered without me actively expending Hero points for him, but I expected it.

All in all, an enjoyable introduction of the game to my crew. I've two weeks to prepare for the next game. Any suggestions?

[BASHMAN]

How about a top secret island with atlantean ruins and dinosaurs on it that the * are trying to take over? The Heroes are sent by MI5 to find a missing research scientist whose last known coordinates (the middle of the ocean) turn out to be the same island?

[Saker]

Cool. I like that BASHMAN. That'll take me some time to detail and prepare.

Last issue, the Crown Guard took the Jotun Axe of Battleaxe. I was thinking that when Count Fenris finds out about that he would use his Grimoire or Conjuration to have a device to immediately locate it for a teleport. He would attack as soon as possible (the same night) rightly thinking that if he waits the Axe would be put into a heavily guarded vault... as opposed to on top of the desk where the Crown Guard are sleeping.

Count Fenris would bring another Ubermensh, a Sorceror, 3-6 Dobermans and 3 Jinxs planning to bring overwhelming force and to leave the minions behind as presents. He would use his own teleport to leave.

What do you think? How about the numbers of minions considering there aren't many allied combat minions to support Excalibur, L'Esprit and Repulse?

Thanks in advance

[Saker]

Hmmm. I slept on my idea and like it less. Count Fenris would be acting too reckless. Plus, politically Battleaxe was the least supportive of the *'s. They would start planning to get the axe for a more * -supportive wielder.

Think. Think. Think.