Target Locked – Fallout Wasteland Warfare Battle Report

To celebrate getting a second house done, I thought it was high time that I played Fallout and wrote up another battle report. The Target Locked scenario looked like a really fun and thematic one on paper and I had a great time putting it through its paces. Here’s a write up on how my most recent game went.

Narrative Intro – I thought I’d try my hand at another piece of very short fiction to kick things off.

She could see things. Things that nobody else could and then… they came true. And with the power of prediction, she earned respect. Mama Murphy’s ability to see in the future became invaluable to the Minutemen. She could prevent Raiders from taking their supplies and they suddenly knew how to steer clear of roving Deathclaws thanks to her. While she earned the trust of the Minutemen leaders like Preston Garvey and Ronnie Shaw, not everyone took kindly to her help. Someone in Boston sent Assaultrons to pay Mama Murphy a visit and stop her from ever making another prediction again…

Scenario Setup – Target Locked is a pretty straightforward scenario. One side has a VIP that needs to be escorted from one side of the board to the other or they can kill off their opponents to win. The problem is that the opponent is Assaultrons who simply need to kill the VIP to win. If you’ve never played Fallout before, Assaultrons are fast, relentless, and extremely dangerous in the game. One of the last things you want to run into while wandering the wasteland so this is no small feat.

I chose this scenario because it works pretty well with the street terrain and I figured the houses make a pretty decent backdrop too. Unfortunately for me, the scenario is 4 x 4 which means the board is more bare than I would like. It is a problem that I intend to rectify later this year as I’m tired of feeling like I don’t quite have enough terrain and that the boards end up being a little bare.

I arranged the terrain to try and be as fair to both sides as I could. Mama Murphy is a really immobile unit and I knew that she would need some cover to protect her or she’d die early as the Assaultrons can easily catch her in a foot race. I also wanted to provide a little cover for the Assaultrons as I thought they might struggle against the guns of the Survivors. So hopefully that gives a little insight as to the board layout and I’ll talk more about how it panned out in the game near the end.

Finally, I should note that there is a special rule for this scenario. There is a computer terminal near where the Assaultrons deploy that can be accessed to grant the Survivors the ability to take control of them for one round. I figured this would be barricaded off and have a little extra security which made for a decent picture.

Survivors – With 500 points to play around with, the Survivors were able to field a fair amount of firepower. I decided to go with as much of a Minutemen force as my collection allowed. I wish that I had more Minutemen painted as I would have fielded them instead of Codsworth most likely. The strategy was simple, Mama Murphy would hide in the back and let the Minutemen fire away at the Assaultrons. Codsworth would serve as a roadblock to try and slow the Assaultrons down a bit as well. I chose Mama Murphy as a VIP because she has to be protected or she’ll die quickly, especially considering that the Survivor force I selected is pretty immobile and wants to shoot as much as they can. My hope was that this would lead to a pretty tightly contested game. Lastly, it was an excuse to finally use Mama Murphy in a game. She is a pretty complicated unit that gives you some foresight themed abilities but is not very strong in combat, unsurprisingly.

Survivor Forces (From left to right in the photo above)

Codsworth – Mr. Handy Buzzsaw and Mr. Handy Flamer

Preston Garvey – Laser Musket with Long Barrel

Mama Murphy

Ronnie Shaw – Laser Rifle

Minuteman – Hunting Rifle

Total points: 495

Assaultrons – Because Assaultrons come equipped with a melee and ranged attack by default, I left them as-is. The fact that they basically add up to 500 points certainly helps too. The head laser is an interesting weapon because it can fire once a turn if you stay close your enemies which in this scenario against the Survivor was going to be no trouble at all. Assaultrons don’t just keel over and die when they lose their last hit point either. Instead, they can no longer be attacked and they can make two moves before they self-destruct and cause a huge amount of damage in a small area. Overall, Assaultrons are incredibly powerful but I find their rules a bit finicky because they can only attack predictably in melee which makes the automatically generated ranged attack hard to tactically squeeze in. I misunderstood how the self-destruct ability worked too which I’ll discuss in more detail later when it comes up. Make no mistake, this battle is a contrast in style and abilities and it will be interesting to see which side wins out.

Two Assaultrons – Assaultron Swipe and Assaultron Head Laser

Total Points: 498

Battle Report

Round One
Ronnie hit an assaultron for a single point of damage. The bots both readied and surged forward to charge next turn. They each got a token which would allow a free head laser shot next turn.

While the Minutewoman and Preston fired four shots, only one hit for two more damage on the left Assaultron and that was after Preston used a luck token…. Codsworth charged the damaged the left-most Assaultron and cut into it with his buzzsaw for two more damage. Overall, it was a quiet start for the Survivors who had limited time to put holes into the Assaultrons…

Round Two
Event card – Mole Rat Tunnel – Unfortunately, this had no effect as it only targets the middle of the table where the Assaultrons had already left. It would be a fun little terrain piece to make in the future though!

The damaged Asaultron fired off a primed head laser shot at the Minutewoman. It removed her armor bonus and did a single wound. It then charged Codsworth. The other Assaultron teamed up for close combat against Codsworth and managed to take down the loyal Mr. Handy. The Head Laser shot took two of the four points of health on the Minutewoman as well.

The combined fire of the Survivors just managed to remove the last hit point on the battered Assaultron. The self-destruct sequence initiated and it would blow up next round.

Round Three
Event card – Lightning Storm – This causes random damage at the end of the round and can persist for multiple rounds as well.

The self-destructing Assaultron ran towards the Minutewoman and Ronnie and blew up causing a damage and setting them on fire.

*Editor’s Note – I somehow misunderstood that the explosion deals four damage and not one and so the Minutewoman should have died outright here. It would have also caused serious damage to Ronnie had I played it correctly. This would have freed the Assaultrons up to go after Ronnie, Preston, or Mama Murphy even quicker if I followed the rules better.*

The undamaged Assaultron charged the Minutewoman and killed her with a nasty swipe. This setup a chance to shoot at Mama Murphy but the barricade’s cover bonus ended up preventing any harm.

Ronnie activated, took a damage from being on fire, and the flames were not extinguished either and would cause more damage next round. While she might have tried to put the fire out by using one of her two actions, her bravery and experience kicked in and she fired twice at the nearby Assaultron doing one point of damage and setting it on fire. It was a nice moment of revenge after what she had just experienced!

Preston used his critical ability on the musket to fire off a high powered shot but the Assaultron’s armor prevented it all. His second shot did connect for a single point of damage.

In a stroke of luck for the Survivors, the Assaultron was hit by two bolts of lightning due to the event card. It had six hit points left. The storm would continue next round too.

Round Four
Event card – Vertibirds Overhead – No Effect

The Assaultron took a wound from the flames but managed to douse the flames without taking an action. The bot slipped behind the barricades to shoot at Mama Murphy but once again missed her! It charged her with its final action putting the Survivors in a precarious position…

Ronnie doused the flames as well and decided to try and shoot into combat. She ended up hitting Mama Murphy for one damage. Preston could not overcome cover and missed the Assaultron twice… Things were looking pretty bleak for the Survivors who at times had the accuracy of stormtroopers instead of their Minuteman namesake!

With no good tactical choices, Mama Murphy fled from cover and the Assaultron but was now completely exposed…

The storm hit Preston and Mama Murphy for a wound each and would continue on.

Round Five
Event Card – Quiet – 2+ bonus to all skills

The Assaultron moved towards Mama Murphy and fired its laser at her. She was struck for four damage and only had one wound left. The Assaultron charged her which meant she was nearly as good as dead.

Preston fired off a couple of shots and managed one more damage on the bot but it still had two left.

Mama Murphy tried to flee one more time but it was futile and the Assaultron knocked her to the ground and she was unable to get back up…. The Assaultrons barely survived but Mama Murphy would no longer aid the Minutemen.

Closing Thoughts – That was a very close game of cat and mouse in the end. In the early rounds, I thought for sure the Assaultrons were going to get an easy win due to the high frequency of poor shooting rolls but the Survivors pulled it back and it started to look as if they had the upper hand, especially once the first Assaultron went down. Flushing Mama Murphy out of cover proved to be the key tactical decision as then it was only a matter of time until she was killed. In the final round, the Assaultrons basically had her dead to rights, especially once that Head Laser shot removed most of her hit points. She was either going to die while the final Assaultron was functioning or she would die when it self-destructed. Speaking of which, my mistake on the self-destruction of the first Assaultron undoubtedly helped the Survivors stay in the game longer and make it closer than it should have been. Fortunately, my rules error did not affect the outcome of the game in the end.

This is a well-designed scenario where the Assaultrons have a lot of power and their opponent has a tough task to protect their VIP. You might be able to pick a faster VIP and try and run them up the table past the Assaultrons, especially if you can tie the bots up in close combat but not many factions in Fallout excel at this that I’ve used anyway. Its mostly canine units that are really fast and making them the VIP feels a little unthematic to me.

If I’m honest, I might have done better to pick a more mobile force with more close combat ability. Taking a Lone Survivor and putting them in power armor would have made this scenario very different and probably a lot more fluid. The Lone Survivor could try to flee the board and wade into combat whenever needed. While I kind of realized it could go this way before I actually played, it would have been nice if the Survivors actually left their deployment area. The game was played on a tiny area of the board which went against my goal of celebrating the terrain milestone. I tend to pick sides that really contrast with each other but I think in future games, I’ll try and experiment with two sides that are a bit more similar and see how it goes. Either way, Fallout gives a great game and this was a very fun way to spend some time.

Of course, I also really need to get some more terrain done to fill out the boards and make them a little less barren so that will have to be a priority too before I play Fallout again…