Story Encounter: The Great Train Robbery

[Hateful Darkblack]

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (PDF)

A Story Encounter for Malifaux

by TedPro

(with thanks to megnc86, lifeblood, and kasul for feedback and playtesting)

SETUP Choose one player to be the Train Operators, and the other to be the Bandit. This can be either by agreement or using the following rule:

"The most likely factions to be Train Operators are, in descending order, Arcanist, Guild, Outcast, Resurrectionist, and Neverborn."

Place train cars across a diagonal of the board, similar to a Diagonal Deployment. Each train car should be about 2 inches wide by 6 inches long, and about 3 inches high. (If you don't have terrain, you can pretty easily fold 8.5" x 11" paper into 2.125" x 5.5" paper, which is close enough. You can also probably just use any index cards that you're not using for the game) These should be evenly spaced, about two inches apart. Train cars are easily climbable, blocking, obscuring, Ht 3 flat elevation. There should be no other terrain within 3" of the train cars. The first car should be in base contact with the Train Operator's corner, and there should be seven cars total. The cars should take up the whole map: this is a very long train.

The rest of the board should be an outdoor setting, with cliff faces, cactus, bushes, and rock formations.

For game purposes, it's not possible to go inside the train cars.

Place a 30mm Loot counter on top of each of the back three cars. (The three cars furthest from the Bandit side's deployment.)

DEPLOYMENT: The Train Operators deploy first, and must place all models on top of the train, or climbing the train, on the Operator's half of the board. Then, the Bandits deploy using a standard diagonal deployment.

SPECIAL ESCAPE: Any model at the edge of the board that is not within the melee range of an enemy model can take a (2) Interact action to Get Away. Models that Get Away are buried and cannot be unburied, but are considered still alive for the purpose of schemes and strategies. Any tokens or counters they are carrying are buried along with them.

TRAIN MOVEMENT: During the Resolve Effects stage of each round, push all train cars 8 inches toward the Bandits' side edge in a straight line. If you're using a different size or spacing, the movement should always be enough to put each car in the exact position of the next car ahead. Add new cars to the back of the train as needed, 2 inches behind the next train car. The train is infinitely long for game purposes. If it's easier, you can represent this by moving all models, tokens, counters, and so on to the same position the next car up.

Any models or markers that are on the train, or climbing the train, are pushed as well at the same rate, so they're in contact with the same spot with respect to the train. Any models or markers that are moved out of the game space are considered to Get Away (even if they are within the melee range of an enemy model).

(If a model climbing the side of the train is pushed, move it to the appropriate place on the next train, or as close as possible short of that distance if that spot is occupied. This doesn't cause any damage.)

TRAIN COLLISION: Any model that is within the Train's path to any degree must make a Df->14 duel during the Start Closing Phase. If the model succeeds, push the model to the closest point out of the train's way. If the model fails, the model takes a 2/4/6 damage flip that cannot be cheated. A Ht 1 takes no damage on a Severe damage flip -- the train passes over them harmlessly!

FALLING OFF A MOVING TRAIN: Falling off a train car causes a 2/4/6 damage flip as if Falling from a greater height. A model on top of a train can Jump (2) to land safely either side of the train, half an inch away from the train.

TRAIN SUPPLIES: Any Scavenger in base contact with any train car can take a (1) Interact action to gain a Scrap Counter. Any Gravedigger in base contact with any train can can take a (1) Interact action to gain a Corpse Counter.

BREAKING THE TRAIN: Models controlled by the Bandit can try to break the train by damaging any car. The train cars have Hardness 3, but do not leave play if broken. Instead, the whole train gets the Busted Train condition if any train cars are successful broken.

Any new terrain placed on a moving train car (or in the space in front of a moving train car) is destroyed during the Start Closing Phase. This also makes the train a Busted Train.

TINKER: Any non-Insignificant model with Scavenger (on any side) in base contact with any train car can take a (1) Interact action and spend any number of Scrap counters to Tinker with the broken train. This gives one positive or negative twist (your choice) to the Self-Repair check that will occur at the end of the round.

BUSTED TRAIN: During the Start Closing Phase, if the train has the Busted Train condition, the Train Operator makes a Self-Repair check. This cannot be Cheated, but see Tinker above.

Self-Repair flip:

Black Joker: Still broken! Train does not move this round, and anyone in base contact takes 1 Dg. Check next round.

1-10: Still broken! Train does not move this round. Check next round.

11-13: Fixed. Train is no longer a Busted Train. All train cars lose the broken condition, and the train moves this round.

Red Joker: Improved! Train is no longer a Busted Train. All train cars lose the broken condition, and the train moves this round. Raise the train's hardness by 1 until the end of the encounter -- this stacks if it happens multiple times.

LOOT: Any non-Insignificant Bandit model in base contact with a train car can make an Interact action pick up an uncarried Loot counter on that train car. One non-Insignificant Train Operator model in base contact with the train can make a Wp->Wp duel to cancel this action. This duel ignores any immunity to Wp duels.

Models carrying the Loot counter can climb and jump while carrying the Treasure. A model carrying a Loot counter does not drop from the normal movement of train cars, but can drop it due to a push from Train Collision. Loot is otherwise treated the same as the Treasure Counter of the Treasure Hunt strategy -- it reduces Wk to 4", removes Flight and Float, can be picked up by either side after first dropped, and so on.

VICTORY CONDITIONS:

Bandit:

2VP if at least one friendly non-Insignificant model is carrying a Loot counter at the end of the encounter, while at least 6 inches away from the train.

4VP if at least one friendly non-Insignificant model Gets Away while carrying a Loot counters at the end of the encounter, while at least 6 inches away from the train.

Train Operator:

2VP if at least two Loot counters are on the train at the end of the encounter.

4VP if all three Loot counters are on the train at the end of the encounter.

For the purpose of this strategy, a Loot counter is considered to be on the train if it's on top of the train, or carried by any model (of any side) that is on the train or in base contact with the train. A Loot counter is also considered to be on the train if a model Gets Away while on or in base contact with the train.

EXTRA PLAYERS: If playing with more than two players, pick two players to be Train Operator and Bandit. Other players are deployed in a diagonal deployment and flip for strategies as usual.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Hateful Darkblack
(formatting)

[Hateful Darkblack]

I didn't see a particular place for fan-made Story Encounters, but here's one that I wrote.

If you try it out, let me know how it goes!

[sinistercats]

WOW! Would love to see more of this kind of thing. Very cool!

[CrazyCarl]

This looks excellent. I happen to have been left a bunch of O scale trains with track and look forward to trying this kind of scenario out. As for things that could be done with it, I like adding in a push for all models on the train (2-3 inches) to go along with the damage (which simulates the inertia). It could lead to some hilarity if someone was sitting at the front of the engine, or if the train curves for some reason and the model would fly off it.

[poulpox]

Great input thanks!

Yes I agree we should have a special forum section dedicated to fan-made encounters, otherwise they will get lost in the volume of posts.

[fritz the cat]

i aswell agree at the need for fan made story encounters. I love the idea of them, and wish there were more!

[Hateful Darkblack]

I'm hoping to play this again this weekend. My friends get together on Saturdays at our FLGS, so I'm planning to try it again, and to try to convince others to do so too.

I'd love to see a special forum for story encounters! I am writing another one right now, actually. But I won't post it until I've playtested it at least once.

[kasin666]

this is nice but couple of questions? whats the point of special escape? by the rules you placed there if the model will be buried which would leave the counter there since you using treasure hunt rules.the other problem is why cant insignificant models interact with the counters my point being in treasure hunt they can they just dont count for vps?

[Hateful Darkblack]

Kasin, great questions, thanks! You're right, both are different, and I did have a reason for suggesting both of them.

The special escape was kind of necessary for trains leaving the area, since that is a likely possibility in the game and not necessarily undesirable. If you give it a try, you'll see what I mean.

I just fixed the rules problem you noted: now any tokens and counters they carry leave with them, which was my intent.

I know that it's different for Treasure Hunt, but because the trains are moving, there's a big advantage to pulling the Loot counter off in the first place, since any defenders will probably be whisked away shortly after. That's why I said non-Insignificant minions couldn't be the first to pick it up.

Edited December 16, 2011 by Hateful Darkblack
(updated with more reply)

[nix]

Just so I am clear, a quick set of questions:

1. The first car in the train is in the Train Operators corner. (Car 1)
   
2. The loot counters are placed on Car 1, Car 2, and Car 3, heading from the Train Operators corner to the center of the board.
   
3. Car 1 will be the last of the initial cars set-up to leave the board on the Bandits side of the board.
   

Is this correct?

[Hateful Darkblack]

Yes, Nix, that is exactly correct.

And Car 1 will only leave play if you continue into an extra turn.

[Hateful Darkblack]

We played this again this weekend, and a question came up:

What if one model hanging off a train is pushed (when the train moves) so it bumps into another model standing on the ground in the way?

The answer we came up with was this:

It'll move around without any damage to either model. If the space where it would end up is occupied by another model, push it up as close as you can to where it would end up.

Seemed to work out fine, and only came up once.

[SoulG]

Love what you're doing. I'm kinda hoping for more story-driven encounters, perhaps even a full campaign from Wyrd/Fan-Made.

You need to remove/change the Train Supplies rule, especially for corpse tokens. Otherwise? I play with 8 dogs. They each make a corpse counter and give it to, say, Nicodem. Nicodem gets a Rogue Necromancy and 2 Flesh Constructs without losing any models. Most other rezzers can use them almost as well.

You may want to consider allowing a healing flip instead, possibly as an (All) action.

[Hateful Darkblack]

Thanks, SoulG! I'm having fun doing it! I have another Story Encounter coming soon.

You may be right about Train Supplies. There's already a Special Terrain that lets you take a (1) Interact to gain a Corpse Counter, I believe. (The Graveyard.) So I think it won't be too broken. I just like the idea of someone dragging passengers off the train to perform horrible experiments on them mid-combat.

I will try the scenario with more Graverobbers and see if it comes across as very broken. If it looks like it's not working, I'll post a suggested change.

Give it a try, too! I'd love to hear your experiences.

[Hateful Darkblack]

(one update to this encounter FWIW: The WP duel to stop someone from grabbing Loot ignores Immune to Influence, because otherwise Immune to Influence models would be perfect thieves.)