Gang fight in the junkyard of broken dreams

I cracked out my desert scenery for a 3' by 3' Factious Waste test game on Tuesday night. You may remember these cliffs from Deathrace 40,000 at BOYL 2015, or you may even remember when they were first built for my egyptain high elves six years ago! For this game we gave the two starter gangs carte blanche to drive any vehicle on the table.

 

A promising first turn saw my Trash Runner leader bag himself a tasty convertible whilst my NeoPrimitive and Luddite went after some scrap and my GenCorps officers activated their suit shields and went after the other gang. Spotting 3 of the enemies bunched together the Luddite prepared to drop a pipe bomb on them... only to fumble and drop the explosive right at his feet. Fortunately it was a dud and did minor damage but it was enough to drop him prone right out in the open. The Trash Runner seemed to be having difficulty getting the hang of his car's handling. After misjudging a corner he had to brake hard to avoid crashing into a pillar and spent a couple of activations pulling a 3-point turn to get back in the game.

Meanwhile the enemy Doughnutter had appropriated a nimble buggy and already stuffing some scrap into the back. The GenCorps descended on him with charged crossbow bolts but covering fire from ReFrat agents kept the officers at bay whilst reinforcements moved up to help out. The GenCorps diverted their suit's systems to deliver a crippling electric shock to the first agent, laying him out, but were forced down to the ground by a hail of machine gun fire.

Over the other side of the table the stricken Luddite was being hammered by gunfire. Kept prone by the relentless hail of bullets he was quite unable to get away from the buggy bearing down upon him and bit the dust... quite literally. His executioner slowed to allow another agent to jump aboard with a haul of scrap. Across the board there came a roaring of engines as the Trash Runner finally extracted his vehicle from the pillars and came cannoning forward in a cloud of dust, straight into the side of the buggy. The rammed vehicle skewed sideways and the distracted driver stood hard on his accelerator.

Smash! The buggy cannoned forwards into a rock pile, flipping and throwing its occupants clear of the vehicle. The Trash Runner leapt out to finish the job, but he was on the receiving end of retribution from another ReFrat agent. Fortunately a slick of oil spreading from the convertible caused the agent to loose his footing and his shots went wide, his magazine emptying into the sky. As the GenCorps officers were overwhelmed my gang fled the field, leaving the enemy victorious. Fortunately long-term injuries were minor (well, mostly) and the gang will be back for vengeance.

The game lasted 8 turns and took just under an hour. Really happy with how the vehicle interactions were working, keeping the action model-focused and slotting alongside the core SystemMech rules neatly. It was also our first real use of plot tokens as a narrative driver and again I was really pleased with the extra depth and flexibility they added. We each got through 2 tokens in the course of the game (to modify environmental features and our opponent's actions) so my estimated allocation of 5 tokens to a starting posse seems reasonable. I want to have another look at how further tokens are gained though as I'm torn between not wanting them to be too easily restored and not wanting to add complexity to the between-game stages by adding in a separate system. As always, thoughts welcome!

Free parking for wasteland warriors

If you've missed the times when I've harked on about Factious Waste in the past then you might not know it's a near-future, post-apocalyptic dystopian skirmish game set in a world depleted of natural resources. Tyrannical energy companies and the recycling mob vie for control of the desolate 'outworld' where the majority of humanity slaves on the treadmills of industry. Revolutionary luddites try to bring down the corporations, deluded neoprimitives take a stand to protect an ecosystem which was destroyed long ago and deranged desk cops from privileged inworld stomp out crude law enforcement amongst the barbarous desert.

It's a game that's been 5 years in the making and is finally reaching its destination thanks to the work of some fantastic artists. Tony Yates and Carl Critchlow will be familiar names to you I'm sure, but also check out the work of Mike Tenebrae and Simon Lee Tranter, it's epic stuff.

The core rules have been in place for a few years now (they were also bushwhacked for the celtic fantasy world of The Woods last year, but they started off in FW) but the game was lacking something very important- vehicles! You can't have a Mad Max, 2000AD-inspired game without some cool wheels. The principles I wanted to use for vehicles in the game had been around for a while, I just hadn't got round to fleshing them out. A couple of trips to pound shops earlier this year, some bits courtesy of Fox Box and Ramshackle Games and that has been rectified! The dirty dozen are now ready to go prospecting for that all-important trash running contract!

Airjunkers are primitive vehicles, usually nothing more than a big fan strapped to the back of a gutted derelict. They're slow, noisy and they drink fuel but they're relatively manoeuvrable and cheap.

Buggies are the most common wasteland vehicle. Their lightweight frames and large engines make them nippy, manoeuvrable, fairly fuel-efficient and good platforms for mounting weapons of various kinds.

 

The flashy members of the recycling fraternity like to flaunt their wealth in souped-up sports cars, especially the frat brats- spoiled children of the dons.



 

VIPs of the Genpower corporation also ride in style, though with somewhat more elegance than the brash frat. Then there are the industrial vehicles to be found scattered around the wastes. Tracked and wheeled earth movers, dumpers and construction vehicles are easily appropriated as slow but powerful workhorses for wasteland posses. 

For Trash Runners themselves, the Han Solos of the wasteland, their vehicles are their livelihood. Each is intensely customised and personalised to the style and work of the Runner they serve. Big rigs haul enormous loads of scrap across the desert, escorted tankers guard precious fuel cargos, flatbeds serve as mobile platforms for crews and gear.

These vehicles started out as matchbox and '1:43' (apparently) scale vehicles from pound shops, with bits from Ramshackle, Fox Box and GW imperial vehicles added to them. Many of them had their wheels replaced with those from tractor models bought from pound shops, enlarging wheels is my number-one priority for wasteland transport! The sizing's pretty good, even if some of the cars are a bit on the chunky side- that just helps the comic book feel. The detail's not bad either and I was delighted to find that poundland had a skip lorry and a rubbish truck (still WIP at the moment) in the right scale- perfect for a game of scrap hauling!

Factious Wasting at BOYL

 

 

Upon walking into the marquee at BOYL and seeing this... how pleased I was I had pulled out the stops the day before and painted the first 8 masters I just had back from the caster. I couldn't resist grabbing some shots in front of Curtis and Aidan's spectacular terrain.

 

It was also a joy to see Tony Yates again. Tony did a lot of concept art for this project between November and January of this last year so a fair few of the models are based on his awesome work. He snapped this shot of me holding a Trash Runner which is pretty much a direct sculpt of one of his characters. The large 'doughnutter' enforcer and lithe Gencorps agents are also based on characters we developed together.

Stupidly I didn't snap a shot of Tony with this guy, but I did have a spare set of the masters for him so we may yet see his art on top of a miniature based on his art! To demonstrate what a gent he is Tony had a surprise gift for me...

See any likeness there? Perfect artisan character for the next lot of Factious Waste sculpts. Factious Waste is on track for an October Kickstarter release, stay tuned for post-apocalyptic mayhem...