[HH] DarkTron Salvage Operation

[stubby]

Just a quick half-hour pickup battle with one of the kids - it's not going to win any awards, but I wanted to participate in the HH this year so here we go!


On an unnamed outpost (all DarkTron locations are unnamed) on a dark plane just barely above the Beige Carpet, a Darkron exploration group sets up a makeshift perimeter.


Under the direction of mission commander Noborg, DarkTron Medix seek to unlock the secrets of these skeleton-disrupting power staves.


Naturally, their meddling attracts the attention of local skeletons!


The Skeleton Wizard removes all doubt of the skeletons' hostile intentions by firing a death bolt at one of the frontline defenders. The bolt hits the defender in the face, but then critfails one of the supernatural dice and flies back and hits the wizard in the face instead, but then a crit success on the second SN die sends it right back to the defender again. Zap! First blood!

The rest of the skeletons advance, but not close enough to deliver any attacks.


Medix are on the spot, reviving the slain trooper immediately with their creepy DarkTron medikal scorpions.


The DarkTrons return fire on the wizard, blowing off some limbs.


More DarkTrons make their attacks, destroying the wizard and one of the foot soldiers. One of the DarkTron's guns jams on a critfail.

[stubby]

No problem! Two of the skeletons turn around to put their buddies back together.


The skeleton cavalry rides in! Three critical successes and one critical fail mean that three of the defenders are killed beyond any chance of medikal help, and one skeletal knight drops his spear like a dunce.

I swear, this kid rolls d6es like they've got sixes on all sides but the one.

I realize that I should have had these guys grab disruptor staves last turn to defend themselves with, since it was clear they were about to get stomped.


The revived soldier and the soldier with the jammed gun drop their weapons and grab disruptor staves. Their one-die guns won't be much good against armored and shielded skeletons, and the Hero is going to need some redshirts.


With the skeletons upon them, the soldiers change strategy. The riders are armored but the skeletal horses aren't. If the riders can be unhorsed, the heavy armor will make them slow enough for the ranged units to outmaneuver and pick off at leisure.


The southernmost soldier is still taking down regular foot skeletons. He hits this guy hard enough to knock his bones far into the distance.


The Mediks drop their scorpions and pick up the abandoned rifles and reload them. (One of them didn't actually need reloading, but the Medik was confused.)


Powering up his blaster arm, Noborg faces off against the Skeleton Hero and shoots his horse right in the eye socket. He's still banking on reducing the riders' mobility.


Three horsemen bear down on Noborg, taking out three courageous redshirts as they leap in the way of the incoming attacks.


The skeleton wizard fires a death bolt at Noborg, but the trooper at the wall redshirts also.


Finally, the skeleton hero swoops in for the kill - but just ends up critfailing and dropping his halberd like a bonehead. D'oh! Fingerbones are slippery.


So instead it's this crossbow skeleton who finishes the job. Noborg's luck with redshirts finally runs out, and he blows the armor roll. The DarkTron Hero is dead!

As he falls, he uses a Heroic Feat to make a final attack with his katana. It's successful, and he manages to shatter a skeleton coming over the wall as his dying act.

[motorhead fan]

Very good, I'd participate in HH but I only have about 6 skeletons and half of them don't have arms I think.

[stubby]

One of the Medix who dropped his scorpion to pick up a rifle now drops his rifle to pick up a scorpion. His Medikal treatment isn't as successful this time: Noborg is revived, but the Medik is forced to amputate both legs and the blaster arm.

The situation is less dire than it seems; Noborg still has a jetpack for flying around, even if his legs are chopped off. But it would have been smarter for the Medik to drag him away from immediate danger before attempting to revive him.


The other Medik keeps hold of his rifle and shoots the skeleton hero's wounded horse out from under him. Nice shot, doc!

Some crazy rolls meant that there were 16 points of damage left over after slaying the horse, so I tried to apply the overkill damage to the skeleton hero riding it. Unluckily for me, the other unhorsed rider was within range to redshirt and took the damage instead. The skeleton hero landed on his butt behind the horse.


The staff-armed DarkTron jumped in to block the riders from reaching Noborg again, but his attack was unsuccessful.


Looks like everyone forgot about the skeleton wizard. He reaches the barricade and sets off a death explosion, killing Noborg once and for all, as well as the Medik and DarkTron soldier defending him.

[stubby]

In the rearguard, skeleton foot soldiers are merrily reassembling themselves and each other.


The skeleton riders mow down another DarkTron trooper and the remaining Medik.


The skeleton hero stands up and picks up one of the dropped disruptor staves. "What the heck is this supposed to do?" he asks no one in particular.


The final soldier uses his Last Man Standing benny to give himself a couple inches of movement to try and get out of range of the charging knights. In the meantime, he takes a shot and destroys that same skeleton troop for the third time. His plan now is to try and survive long enough to kill the skeleton wizard and steal the magic hat and staff.


But nope! The wizard has other ideas. An unusually effective death bolt rots the flesh from the DarkTron's body, reducing him to a skeleton!


"Wow! I feel so much better!" says the DarkTron skeleton. "How come no one told me being a skeleton was so great?"

"We try to tell everybody, but somebody keeps taking down our billboards!" The skeletons all shake their skulls sadly. "Now what can you tell me about these weird staves you guys were playing with?"

• • -- VICTORY: SKELETONS --

[stubby]

Very good, I'd participate in HH but I only have about 6 skeletons and half of them don't have arms I think.

No problem - put their skulls on regular minifigs. Undercover skeletons

[Zupponn]

Or just have them go into battle armless. I'm hoping to see a battle from you this year motorhead fan. It seems every year you say, "I'll do one next year."

Also, nice battle Mike!

[RedRover]

Nice battle! When do we go about rating these things?

[Zupponn]

Nice battle! When do we go about rating these things?

Start judging once the submission period is closed. You can score them yourself now if you want, but don't post the scores until after November 7th.

[Kalvinator]

Lovely battle. I love how the Darktron forces really didn't have a chance since the skellys could just rebuild.

[Zahru II]

Gameplay - 5
Photography - 5
Violence - 3
Writing - 4
Overall appeal - 4

This was a fun skirmish, glad you could contribute this year!

[RedRover]

Gameplay - 4.5
Photography - 5
Violence - 3.5
Writing - 4
Overall appeal - 4.5

The juxtaposition of the white skeletons against the black spacemen on a black surface really made the skeletons pop, which I liked. This was a fun little skirmish and I adored how the skeletons just kept rebuilding themselves.

[Kommander Ken]

Gameplay - 5
Photography - 5
Violence - 3
Writing - 4
Overall Appeal - 4

This was a fun read. I liked the concept of the disrupter staves and now that they're in skeleton hands, who knows what could happen? That black table makes for an Ossum Halloween-y battlefield.