In a shocking turn of events, I have a surprise battle report for you. I had some time last weekend and wanted to try out the AI in Fallout Wasteland Warfare so I thought why not do that and have an epilogue to the starter campaign while I’m at it? As you may recall, Jeff’s band of Survivors lost a difficult battle to the Super Mutants while a storm and Deathclaw raged. As it turns out, that was not the end of Jeff…
One other thing to note is that this may be my last long-form battle report for a while. I know I have said it before but these things are long and take a while to read, let alone write. While I know regular readers generously take the time to read them, I’ve never gotten the sense that casual visitors get much out of them. So in the future, I will experiment with less wordy battle reports to try and capture the events that occur in a way that can be read in a reasonable amount of time.
Initial Thoughts on AI – To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t as excited to use the AI as I wanted to be. The reason for this is reading through the AI rules left me feeling a bit overwhelmed. It felt like I had to learn an extra set of rules on top of what is a fairly complicated ruleset. Thankfully, I took a peek at the Fallout Wasteland Warfare app and saw that it will randomly give you an AI action for any unit in your game which meant I wouldn’t need to roll a die, interpret symbols on the AI card and could hopefully avoid being overwhelmed by the seemingly separate AI rules. Since I know that people are curious about the AI system, I will try to describe how it works a bit in the battle report and will go into more detail about that, then I normally would. I have post-game thoughts on the AI for you as well too.
Story Recap – Weeks or months passed since the defeat near the cave to Super Mutants. After barely getting by in the wasteland, Jeff ran into a band of Survivors who were willing to help him, Dogmeat, and Daria. Teaming up with Sturges and Codsworth, Jeff started to gain his confidence back. His leadership and combat skills would be tested though. While on a routine scavenging mission, Jeff’s group saw a large band of Super Mutants headed their way. The area looked like a promising place to find loot so it would be a race against time to see who could get the most of it.
Scenario Setup – As the scenario title suggests, grabbing more valuable loot than your opponent is the name of the game here. I randomly selected searchable markers so that it would be a total surprise as to how much loot was available for both sides to grab. There is a six round limit for this scenario and at the end of the final round, the points value of the loot for each side is totaled up and a winner is declared. I tried to pick items that I thought would be of fairly similar value so that neither side could get an item worth 50 points and the rest of the items were only 10 points or less, for example. The scenario rules didn’t state this explicitly but if a side is wiped out, they obviously lose the scenario since they have no loot at that point.
The Survivors – Something that was exciting about this game is that it was my first time ever in wargaming building my own list. My goal for the Survivors was to do what the Tutorial Campaign wouldn’t allow. I wanted to take at least some Survivors who could hold their own in melee combat so that I wouldn’t have to try and shoot the Super Mutants off the board or take heavy casualties and a loss potentially. I also figured that would make the Survivors more mobile and able to grab loot instead of fleeing Super Mutants. The one thing I accidentally omitted was making Jeff heroic. I like those rules quite a bit and just completely forgot to do take that upgrade for either side in this game. Here is a look at the Survivors list:
Jeff, Sole Survivor – 128 points – Hunting Rifle and Machete
Codsworth – 90 points – Mr. Handy Buzzsaw and Mr. Handy Flamer
Dogmeat (Original) – 120 points – Dog Bite
Sturges – 104 points – .44 Revolver and Pipe Wrench
Daria – 56 points – Combat Rifle
Super Mutants – For the Super Mutants, I tried to optimize them a bit using my fairly limited collection. This meant no ranged weapons because Super Mutants generally aren’t great with them. A Master and two Brutes would be the muscle and the threat to the Survivors in close combat. An Enslaved Tech was a must have considering there could be searchable markers that required hacking or lockpicking which Super Mutants are not good at. I also threw in a couple of Super Mutant Hounds as they’re pretty versatile and cheap. A hound could grab some loot with their higher movement rate in a pinch and even if they only tie up the Survivors a bit, they will have done their jobs. Here’s a look at the Super Mutant units with their appropriately earned names:
Da Boss (Master) – 125 points – 10mm Pistol and Sledgehammer
Smack (Brute) – 103 points – Board
Krush (Brute) – 107 points – Sledgehammer
Open (Enslaved Tech) – 35 points – No weapons
Super Mutant Hound 1 – 65 points – Hound Bite
Super Mutant Hound 2 – 65 points – Hound Bite
Battle Report –
Round 1
Before the action started, I randomly drew two weapon mods from my limited card collection for one of Sturge’s abilities. I drew Dissipating (which boosts energy weapon defense) and Stun Pack (which gives a chance for a melee weapon to stun when used). Jeff would take Dissipating even though it was highly unlikely to be useful. Sturges took the Stun Pack which might get some use since he has a pipe wrench and is a better in close combat than ranged.
The round started with fairly standard moves by Sturges, Open, Codsworth, and Dogmeat. I made an early rules mistake here for the Survivors who could have looked at and potentially taken items from the searchable markers they were near but I did not because I thought it cost an action for some reason.
Thanks to the AI command to attack recklessly, the Super Mutant Hound 2 charged across to the middle of the battlefield. It was completely out in the open and vulnerable to ranged fire.
Seeing an easy target in the middle of the battlefield, Daria lined Super Mutant Hound 2 in her sights and fired two shots. The first hit for two damage and the second hit the ground harmlessly.
Smack’s AI and Super Mutant instincts led him to find something to hit so he ran forward into the open on Dogmeat and Codsworth’s side.
Following Daria’s lead, Jeff took aim at Super Mutant Hound 2 and with an automatic success and an extra point of damage die result, the hound was dead before it hit the ground.
The AI commanded Super Mutant Hound 1 to also be reckless which led it to almost the exact same spot as where its packmate died. It was early in the game but I was starting to wonder if the AI worked better with some units more than others.
At the end of the round the score was tied, 0-0 since neither side had found any loot yet.
Round 2
Another thing that I had forgotten to try in the past and wanted to try out in this game is the event deck, which is a random effect that can happen each round after the first. The event for this round was Unbearable Heat which causes each side to select one model to take one action instead of two. Daria was slowed by the intense heat of the wasteland and Super Mutant Hound 2 was also affected from charging across the battlefield into a vulnerable position.
The Super Mutants went first since the model count was now tied. Smack was given a cautious charge by the AI and after moving for his first action, it charged Codsworth. While this earned Smack a charge bonus, it would only come into play if Codsworth tried to move away.
Hoping to cause some damage to Smack, Codsworth fired up his buzzsaw and tried to hit the Super Mutant twice. The end result was a single point of damage.
Da Boss activated next and made a Reckless charge into Codsworth. Similar to Smack, Da Boss earned a charge bonus but was not going to be able to benefit from it.
Seeing that his loyal robot companion was in trouble, Jeff fired into the melee. The first shot missed in the chaos but the second hit Smack for two wounds. The Super Mutant Brute had five left.
Krush got the careful attack AI and since there were no targets it could reach, the Brute found cover behind the red shipping crate.
Daria, who was suffering from the heat, could only manage a single shot which hit Da Boss for a single wound.
Surprisingly, the remaining Super Mutant Hound was not only still alive and undamaged but it got the Objective AI command and instead of charging into a combat somewhere, it checked out the nearby dead synth. There was nothing to loot at the searchable marker however.
Dogmeat activated next and sensed a great opportunity to attack Smack who had its back turned. Earning a charge and outnumber bonus dice certainly wouldn’t hurt either! Unfortunately, Dogmeat rolled an auto-fail result which was about the only way Smack could have emerged unscathed from that attack.
The AI threw another surprise my way when Open got the command to attack. The Enslaved Tech’s only real use is opening stuff and it is a fragile unit. In hindsight, this might have been a situation where I should have thrown out that command and gotten another one since it made little tactical sense. I was curious to see how it would turn out so Open followed his AI programming. If Open died, it would be costly for the the Super Mutants since they couldn’t hack or lockpick searchable markers without him.
Sturges was up last and was in pistol range of Open. His ability to shoot is poor though (around 40% chance of success) so any damage would be a surprise. The first attack missed. The second was a critical success and took two of Open’s three wounds. The Enslaved Tech was looking extremely vulnerable as the round ended.
At the end of the round the score was tied, 0-0 since neither side had discovered any loot yet.
Round 3
The event for this round was Bloatfly Swarm which meant nobody could move more than yellow at a time.
With a lot of melee threats in the center, the Survivors tried to attack the most damaged one, Smack, with Codsworth. Only one damage made it through as Smack’s armor annoyingly prevented three points.
Super Mutant Hound 1 got the command to charge and was able to get in close combat with Codsworth. Rolling a boatload of dice ended up netting three damage which was half of the robot’s health. Things were now looking very bad for Jeff’s robot companion.
Dogmeat attacked Smack twice and the end result was an arm injury which causes a penalty for skill checks. The remaining damage was prevented by Smack’s incredibly lucky armor rolls.
Smack activated next and the AI targeted Dogmeat instead of Codsworth since Dogmeat was healthier. It was a strange decision and not something a human player would do. Smack ended up inflicting a single point of damage thanks to Dogmeat’s armor and Survivor’s faction armor bonus.
Daria edged away from the center of the table to get a line of sight on Open. Her shot killed the enslaved human.
Krush moved back to the nearest loot marker and took a look at it. It was a Cryo Grenade which is worth 6 points. Not a lot but the Super Mutants were on the board!
Sturges went next and finally checked the loot marker near him after I realized it was a free action. It was empty. He then charged the Super Mutant Hound but inflicted no damage other than stunning it. At least the hound would lose an action next turn.
Da Boss activated last for the Super Mutants and it attacked Codsworth since the robot was right in front of him. It took two hits with a sledgehammer before the robot was damaged beyond repair. The Super Mutants finally got some revenge on the Survivors after suffering a couple early casualties.
With Da Boss now no longer in combat since Codsworth was destroyed, Jeff had a chance to shoot at him a couple of times at close range, which could help him punch through the Super Mutant’s formidable armor. Both of Jeff’s shots hit and did a total of three damage. Da Boss had five wounds left.
Super Mutants lead 6 points to 0 thanks to the Cryo Grenade.
Round 4
The event for this round is Diamond City Radio which has no effect on the game. With the unit count tied again, the Super Mutants would go first. Krush got the order to attack and so he bounded across the battlefield and charged Sturges with his second action.
With Da Boss still open to attack, Daria activated and fired two shots at him. The first hit for three damage and brought it down to a single wound left. Unfortunately, the second missed and so Da Boss would stick around the battle a bit longer.
The Super Mutant Hound went next and after spending an action to remove the stunned status, it attacked Sturges. Biting into his arm, the hound caused a single point of damage.
Jeff went next with the hopes of finishing off Da Boss who was by far the most dangerous Super Mutant even with only a wound left. His first shot hit and Da Boss slumped to the ground. The Survivors looked to have the edge now with Da Boss’s demise. Jeff used his final action to charge Smash to try and help Dogmeat finish off the Brute.
Smash activated next and attacked Jeff due to the AI’s command. Smash’s injured arm helped Jeff narrowly dodge both attacks with the board. Smash could do nothing but yell out in frustration as he’d large been ineffective in this battle.
Dogmeat snarled at the enraged Super Mutant and launched into an attack. The first attack missed and generated an action point but the second caused two damage. Smash was down to 2 wounds.
In an impressive display, Sturges attacked the Super Mutant Hound because it was going to attack him back using its Prepare quick action regardless and inflicted four damage with a modest lead pipe. The Hound had a single wound left. The hound tried to get revenge and inflicted a single point of damage which was impressive considering it needed a 4 or less to hit Sturges.
The Super Mutants still lead 6 points to 0.
Round 5
The earlier Unbearable Heat event card must have been a precursor to rain because the next event was Downpour. It had no real effect on the round since there isn’t much to climb on the battlefield.
The Super Mutants went first this time since their numbers were dwindling. Krush started things off and absolutely lived up to his name by smashing Sturges into the ground. Now the Survivors weren’t quite as confident with the game tightening!
Dogmeat went next and went for the jugular against Smash. Jeff’s canine companion killed the Super Mutant on the first attack! With his second action, Dogmeat checked a searchable marker nearby which was surprisingly empty. The Survivors surely must have been wondering why they were even fighting at this point as there seemed to be no valuable loot to be found.
The wounded Super Mutant Hound charged towards Jeff despite its grave injuries and nearly landed a heavy blow on the Sole Survivor. Jeff’s armor saved most of the damage and he ended up taking a single wound. It could have easily been three or four though.
Sensing it was time to get rid of the hound, Jeff went next. Brandishing his machete, Jeff delivered a fatal blow to the hound which ended another threat to the Survivors. Quickly grabbing his rifle, Jeff also fired a shot at Krush and landed a wound. At this point, only Krush was the only one left so the Survivors turned their focus on trying to kill him or grab enough loot to eke out a late win.
Daria concluded the round by taking two shots at Krush and only one of them connecting. It was partially saved by Krush’s armor who now had six wounds left. Even with the Survivors being in control, it was definitely possible that Krush could survive another round and the Survivors lose in heartbreaking fashion…
Super Mutants still lead 6 points to 0.
Round 6
The Downpour from the previous round escalated into a Lightning Storm! At the end of the round, two random models would suffer damage with this event.
Krush went first since he was the final Super Mutant left alive. The AI gave an interesting command. Krush was supposed to move towards the objective. While that could mean finding more loot, after some thought, I decided the smart thing to do was try and retreat behind cover to gain protection against Daria and Jeff’s weapons. To charge into combat wouldn’t likely impact the game and getting more loot would leave Krush completely open to the Survivors’ guns so this seemed like the right move to make even if it was a bit cowardly and savvy for a Super Mutant!
Dogmeat went next and unfortunately, Jeff’s hound could not reach the Super Mutant so instead, it went towards the furthest searchable marker and after searching… it was empty! An unbelievable result and a cruel twist of fate for the Survivors who only had one other marker within their grasp.
Daria was just able to get to the last loot marker and this one contained… an item! Finally!
Which item was it? A lead pipe. Not a valuable item but worth 9 points! That was just enough to edge out the Super Mutants in this game.
The Survivors win 9 points to 6!
Closing Thoughts – That was a see-saw affair that really went down to the wire. While it was a bit disappointing that more items weren’t found, I would say this is an excellent example of why I enjoy Fallout so much. It is well-balanced and the games tell an interesting story each time. I try not to root for either side or let that affect my play but it was nice to see Jeff get some redemption after the bleak ending of the campaign. While this was meant to be a one off game, I have to admit that I feel tempted to continue Jeff’s adventures in the wasteland further with at least some of his current crew. I can certainly see how campaign based games tend to take on a life of their own and become addictive too. For a narrative wargamer, it might be the ultimate way to play a game in fact.
It was interesting using some new minis including Codsworth and Sturges. Truthfully, I wasn’t super impressed with Codsworth as he isn’t that strong in melee and is better at launching flame attacks which are hard to get off because his range is limited. Codsworth wasn’t especially durable in this game either. He soaked up a little damage but I felt wasn’t worth his weight in points this time around. Sturges affected the game much more with his heroics and while I wouldn’t say he is strong in combat, he was fun to use. I’d definitely use the Elvis impersonator in the future!
I butchered several rules that favored one side or the other in this game but I think it all worked out in the end. I like to think that speaks to the quality of the rules of this game. I really enjoyed building the squads for each side and equipping them however I wanted too. It was frustrating in the campaign how the Survivors had almost nobody who was good in melee and I think I addressed that pretty well in this game even if it was their firepower that won the day. I really look forward to trying out more of the minis I’ve painted in future games and experimenting with equipment and skills too as that is a fun part of our wargaming hobby.
I may talk about this more in a future update but I think I will take a break from playing Fallout for a little while so that I can build up my terrain collection a bit more. As I say every report, I feel like my terrain collection is good but every time I play, it kind of looks the same no matter what I use. I have some ideas on how to address this and I think they’ll really increase the visual appeal of my games which is what I want.
Post-Game Thoughts on the AI – Of course, this is probably what you’re most curious about if you’ve read this far. How is the AI? I felt like it was better than I expected and it led to a really close game but I can’t quite decide how much I like it. There were several blunders the AI made like the Super Mutant Hound that was basically given away and the Enslaved Tech which made a suicide advance too. I could have intervened for either of these AI commands though I feel like at a certain point, shouldn’t I just play the entire side if I’m making executive decisions like that? Honestly, if the Super Mutants kept the Enslaved Tech and it grabbed another piece of loot, they would have won the game most likely. So there’s no doubt that the AI is not as sharp as a human player.
At the same time, I felt like it was pretty thematic in how it governed the Super Mutants. In many ways, I felt like I was playing the video game where most enemies just attack you until you’re dead or you kill them. And that is certainly not a bad thing depending on how you’re playing the game. In the narrative mode where you’re playing a campaign, I think this kind of AI is great because you should generally have a fighting chance to make it through most battles with at least some of your force intact and with a solid chance of winning. A points match oriented game would not be served as well by using the AI because you should be able to punish the tactical blunders enough to get a win pretty often. In a lot of ways, playing against the AI feels like playing against the AI in a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) video game like Warcraft, Starcraft, or Command and Conquer. If you play in a tactically sound and somewhat defensive manner, the AI usually gives you chances over time to punish mistakes and grab a win. I like that about playing the AI in those video games but I don’t know that I want that kind of certainty when I play a wargame like Fallout.
The other thing I would say is that the Wasteland Warfare app is pretty indispensable for using the AI. It quickly and easily generates the AI actions without you having to roll a dice like you do with the cards. You also need twice the amount of cards on your table to track the AI. I don’t think I would play with the AI in this fashion. The app just makes it way easier to govern the units in a quick way and I feel like the AI rules without it, are cumbersome. The primary advantage of the AI is it lets you rest your brain while your opponent takes their turn. That is really nice in the typical 2-4 hour Fallout games I play but at the same time, it is a little painful seeing the AI make a bad decision in a way that I wouldn’t. It will be interesting to see if I use the AI going forward to save some brain power. Many people who use the AI suggest giving the AI side a slight points advantage and that would be a good way to offset any blunders it makes. I did not do that in this game and I could see where an extra 50 points for another Super Mutant would have changed this game and made it even more tense. You could also just overrule any bad tactical decisions but I wonder if that isn’t a slippery slope that would make you just want to ditch the AI and play the side as well as you can. I think I’m going to have to play some more to decide which way I prefer playing but I’m glad to have both options either way.
If you made it this far, thank you for giving it a read. I hope it was interesting and that you enjoyed it!
Kuribo's Painting 
Nice write up! Thanks for taking the time to write this all down. I totally understand you wanting to move away from these longer written battle reports, as they do indeed take a lot of time to write.
The random event deck seems interesting and a fun addition and all in all this playthrough felt very thematic and narrative-driven. Just what I like in tabletop wargames!
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You’re very welcome and I appreciate you reading it as well. I don’t mind the time and effort to write these reports per say but I think about half of my regular readers enjoy them and the other half don’t get a lot out of them so if I can find a way to write them in a quicker way, it seems like it might be a win-win.
The event deck is a cool touch in that it just adds a little theme to each round. I didn’t draw much that impacted the game but I think throwing a few surprises into the mix helps keep the game interesting. I find that Fallout is best as a thematic and narrative driven game which is probably why I’ve taken to it. It is kind of the reverse of MESBG which I think does points matches best and narrative is second. Fallout is best at narrative and not a great tournament game. If I remember correctly, you want to give Fallout a try and I’ll certainly be curious to see what you think of it when you get around to it!
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A great write up. A tense game. The only bit I was a bit confused about was the lead pipe had more points than a grenade. Maybe it was a big lead pipe 😋. I started looking at the 3D printer files for Fallout last night. I was really drawn to the vehicles as I love the aesthetics.
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I was wondering the same thing! The points per item seemed pretty random.
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Cheers, mate! I’m glad you enjoyed reading it and it was a tense one to be sure. I think a grenade is better than a lead pipe too but those were the point values assigned by the developers so I went with them. The only thing I can think of is that a lead pipe can be used repeatedly where a grenade is a single use item but even then, I’d rather have the grenade in-game! Modiphius makes plenty of vehicles taken straight from Fallout 4 though I’m sure you can get others if you’d like. Eventually, I hope to make some streets and cars for Fallout. Its definitely in my future plans!
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I did wonder if that was the case🙂
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Great write up Jeff, can fully understand having a break from them, as it’s a lot of write up to do. Look forward to seeing what scenery you have planned.
The AI is interesting, if it gives the feel of the computer game, then I guess it’s giving it a sense of realism to the gaming, even if it’s not what we would consider being tactically sound.
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Thanks, Dave! I don’t like to think about it but I suspect it takes between 5-8 hours of work for me whereas the typical article I write takes less than two hours and probably closer to a single hour most weeks.
I think the AI in Fallout will be iterated upon by other games and overall, I think it does what its supposed to do and the AI works well for a narrative focused game. I don’t think an AI will ever be better or more fun than a human opponent for tournament style games but I’d love to be wrong on that.
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Very cool report. I do love the more in depth write ups but I do agree they take an inordinate amount of time to put together.
I’ve played with AI before in other systems and the fact this game has an
App to handle it is really cool, rolling on a bunch of tables for each model really slows down the pace of the game, so that has to be a massive plus for Fallout if you’re going to play it solo or coop.
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Thanks, mate! I enjoy working on these types of battle reports as I read my fair share in White Dwarfs growing up so I think its neat to try and make my own. While I want to make them shorter, its entirely possible that they aren’t as satisfying that way and end up staying in this format in the long run too. We’ll see how it all shakes out!
I think the app is a big asset for Fallout and other wargames like MESBG would really benefit from it. It just speeds up a lot of things and makes it really quick and easy to reference stats and abilities for units too. Not only that but it makes money for Modiphius (or at least I assume so) so I don’t see why people like Games Workshop don’t jump on it!
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Great battle report and as always your photos have me feeling nostalgic for the PC game.
Real players make tactical blunders as do AI. Sometimes real players intentionally make what appear very poor tactical decisions because of a deeper plan. So random AI “mistakes” can simulate that. However I understand the slippery slope temptation to just ignore what looks like “broken AI decisions”. One way to avoid the slippery slope is perhaps to give the AI a certain number of “AI Wasteland Fate Points”, allowing the AI to spend the each point to discard and redraw an AI action.
From what you have said the narrative aspect of a campaign is my kind of thing and in the grander scope of a campaign a Super Mutant making a stu… er… flawed…tactical move seems a pro rather than a con when it can so easily add a fun narrative moment. Like the Tech who has had enough of life in slavery, waiting until his owners gets too hungry and rushes forward to escape one way or another!
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That Wasteland Fate Points is a pretty awesome idea!
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Cheers, mate! 🙂 I agree with everything you’re saying and I think your Fate Points idea is a cool one. You can always just throw out bad actions and generate a new one with the app as well. I think I’m leaning in that direction after this game though it is a credit to the system that the game was still good and tense even with the tactical errors that occurred.
And yes, the narrative possibilities for this game are incredible. You can pretty much reenact things from Fallout if you want or you can create your own version of Fallout using the rules as well. Its not too difficult to adopt the rules you want and disregard ones you don’t like too. There are some weapons that are complicated and/or hard to figure out how to use and I avoided anything like that for this battle to try and make it easier on myself for example. If you didn’t have a lot of other great projects going, I would say that Fallout fits your goals very well but as it is, I know better than to tempt you! 🙂
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Battle reports – it depends for me. Usually it’s a game I don’t know or maybe have no interest in. But, JNV will often write up a battle report and I will find it interesting, even though I have about 0 experience in the games he plays. Mainly it’s the narrative of his stories that make it interesting and I can imagine things like the dogfight taking place in the skies. Probably what hurts battle reports is being overly long and using very game specific terms without explanation. I was able to follow your battle report just fine, because I played hours of the Fallout computer game, have familiarity with Frostgrave as a skirmish game, and was interested in hearing about the AI. Kudos! About the AI, does it have different actions according to the type of foe you’re facing? The decision to put the non-combatant into combat was dreadful. Sure, maybe he was mad that his pet super hound does or something, but still. My hope is that these AI apps only become better and better, as they are a great tool for games!
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I’m glad you were able to follow everything and a reader like you is a great litmus test for how good a battle report is. If people who don’t know the system enjoy it, then you’re doing alright.
To answer your question, unfortunately, the AI doesn’t change depending on who it is facing (which would be awesome!). Instead, the AI is different depending on which faction you use and what the goal of the scenario is. Super Mutants generally attack as hard as they can but I bet that the Survivors’ AI or The Institute’s AI is different and they’re a bit better at sticking to objectives. The best way to find that out is to give those factions a try as AI opponents which is something I will happily do in the future!
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Hmm, could you have used the Survivor AI for the techie? It’s a shame the app AI isn’t able to differentiate, I’d expect more from the app than just acting as a digital set of cards.
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I didn’t explain it in the report (though I think it would have been worth mentioning hindsight) that the Enslaved Tech in particular is more or less a captive of the Super Mutants and it acts differently depending on if there is a Super Mutant nearby or not. It could be that the Enslaved Tech got the AI command it did because the Super Mutants had left him alone though I’m not sure. If the Tech used the Survivor AI, it would probably act too smartly but having said that, I think it is well worth experimenting with. The Enslaved Tech is kind of a made up thing to make sure that Super Mutants can lockpick and hack computers anyway so there’s no reason not to alter the rules to your liking with him I’d say!
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Sounds like a great game and the photos looked great – the effort you’ve put into you models and terrain really shows everything off to its best effect.
Your thoughts on the AI are interesting. On the one hand I’d actually like to see more face-to-face gaming (both for myself and to see more done to encourage it in general) in order to combat some of the terrible side-effects of social isolation following all the covid lockdowns. On the other hand, the way things are going, I think AI in gaming is here to stay (as, sadly, is a degree of social isolation) so we should be making the best of it. My wife and I have often talked about wanting to team up against an AI opponent which might be a great way to get the best of both worlds.
Regarding the AI making poor decisions is there a way to “re-roll”? That is to say, if the AI makes a tactically terrible choice, or a choice that doesn’t fit with the nature of the unit being activated (such as the enslaved tech running into close combat), can you ask the AI to supply an alternative result – and then go with that instead? It would be similar to when a human opponent makes what looks like a poor choice and you politely ask “are you sure you want to do that?” before they commit to a schoolboy error.
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Thank you for the kind words and for giving it a read!
I think Fallout is a versatile game for solo, co-op, and versus human opponents, so long as you don’t want to play points matches (I don’t know what those are called in Warhammer currently but I’m sure you know what I mean). You can certainly play points matches, but Fallout’s narrative focus is so good that you’d be doing yourself a disservice. Truthfully, Fallout doesn’t have a strong tournament scene either like Warhammer and MESBG do.
In terms of re-rolling actions, yes, absolutely. In the app, its easy, you would just request a new AI action for that turn. If you were using the cards, you could just re-roll the die until you get a different result (which probably only takes a single roll most times). In the rules, they tell you to use your own judgement and don’t be afraid to throw out a bad or weird AI command. I didn’t do that very much because I wanted to see how the rules did without much management and the results speak for themselves. In the future, I think I would just re-roll for the Enslaved Tech, in particular, because it was a suicide charge and there was zero value in that move. So in that sense, I think the AI is quite promising and as I get used to it, I could see it being the main way I play in the future. I certainly think it could work well in a co-op game as well.
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Glad you got in an enjoyable game with the fall out stuff. The miniatures and terrain all look fantastic together.
Long style details oriented AARs are such a pain to write and I’ve never done one well enough to publish. I just default to some nice pics and general narrative. It’s the note taking that gets me. I never seem to have the time while playing.
On reading these I read yours of course (of course!) but generally unless it’s a game that I know we’ll or what to know better I just skim them for the exciting bits. 😀😀
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Thanks Stew for the kind words and thanks for making it all the way to the end too 😉 I think you know what I’m saying about reading it all. On a computer screen, we’re all prone to skimming because of the harsh blue light or something like that. That is partially why I try to have as many nice pictures as possible for those who are skimming 😀
You’re spot-on with the notetaking too. I tend to record most everything that happens and then edit out details which are unneeded and it definitely takes an extra hour or two to do that work. The way you do battle reports is much more sensible than me but it is fun to do a bit of creative writing when I can at the same time 🙂
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Enjoyed the report, Jeff! 🙂 I could see it was a longer post, so I left it to come back to when I had more time (I do that with all the longer posts)! Looked good to me, but if you think you need more scenery you’d be the better judge of that – it can slow movement and block line of sight too much sometimes. As far as the AI goes, it maybe worked out on a balance – the survivors won the game close to the end, but if you’d changed some of the AI’s decisions they might not have won at all, so you maybe need to see how it works out. I don’t like apps in games but sounds like it makes it easier to manage for you and that can’t be a bad thing!
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Thanks for giving it a read and I do the same thing with longer posts myself. I would like more scenery to mix in but I also want to have a couple of key pieces of terrain to add more life to the board. I think you’ll see what I mean when I get around to making it!
I agree with you that the Super Mutants likely would have won if the Hound and Enslaved Tech weren’t thrown away early on so in some ways, I can’t complain about the AI because it led to a fun game with the result I wanted (even if I try to keep the game fair and not steer it towards a particular result). It is funny how gamers, including wargamers, can be so finicky. We’re always looking for perfection it seems like 🙂
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Nice report, nice pictures! Thanks for taking the time to do the report, it was an enjoyable read. Looks like the AI needs some homebrew rules, but glad you got a chance to use it.
To keep the containers from looking like they are just being placed on the board, you might want to think about mounting them on a thin piece of MDF or similar material where you can break up the bottom edge with grasses,etc. Because of course you have nothing else to do 😁
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Thank you for reading it! I wouldn’t write them if it didn’t seem like people enjoyed reading them. I think the AI has potential but you definitely have to learn how to make the most of it.
I like your idea for the MDF basing. I wouldn’t do it for every shipping container since you want to be able to stack them from time-to-time but I agree that the “board” is too flat currently and there isn’t enough “immersion” with things right now. That is something I hope to address. If only I didn’t have Hellboy to paint and an MESBG diorama started! That is the biggest reason why I suspect I won’t be playing Fallout for a couple of months. I need time to make some headway on all of these different projects.
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You could always base them but not fasten them down. Containers would of course be stacked.
I haven’t done much myself lately with my usual painting, etc., I’ve been playing the Last of Us again, such a great game.
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That’s a good thought, I didn’t even think of it which is surprising because I usually do fasten things down. And that is a great excuse for not hobbying. Its a game so great that its been partially remade three times now! I hope you’ve played Part II as well. I actually liked it better than Part I, I think though not everyone agrees with me in that regard.
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Nice battle report, had me hoping Jeff would pull through! And it’s great to see the battlefield and models looking so nice.
The AI sounds really interesting, as you say could be great for a campaign.
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Thanks for giving it a read and for rooting for my namesake 😉 There will certainly be some campaigns in my future as they are a lot of fun (especially if you’ve got minis and terrain ready to use!).
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Thanks for taking the time to write this up, I really enjoy reading about your adventures in Fallout.
I wouldn’t worry about the AI system sometimes making poor moves – you just need the system to work well enough that you can play the game rather than being something so smart that you’d find it a genuine challenge. Similarly I wouldn’t sweat too much if you sometime want to over-rule it for the sake of a fun study. The main point of this is for your own entertainment; it’s not like the wargaming police are going to come to your door if you fudge a decision in your single-player game!
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No, thank you for reading it! I know there are lots of ways for us to spend our time so I appreciate anyone who reads a battle report.
Those are good points, mate! I do try to focus on having fun and I sweat getting rules wrong much less than I used to (if you can believe it). I will definitely keep your advice in mind when I get around to playing Fallout again. I’m already looking forward to it!
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