After the Calamity

Our worst fears have come true, a deadly virus has wiped out over 90% of the human population, and all major infrastructure has gone. No power stations, no refineries, no government. The land is populated by wild animals and even wilder humans, not to mention some terrible mutations the virus has caused. Why some of us survived is a mystery, how we keep surviving is the problem.

Welcome to the post apocalypse skirmish campaign called After the Calamity. Our story revolves around a surviving community group centred in the remains of a coastal village. Immediately after the disaster and after effects of what people mow just call the Calamity it was all they could do to survive. However, the growing need for new resources, and the increasing hopes and concerns for the state of the world outside the community has lead the community leaders to appoint a commander to lead the exploration of the world around them.

Starting with just 20 small units (I’ll be using 5 figures per unit) of people of very different fighting ability and limited arms and ammunition at your disposal, you must now start figuring out what’s out there, and how you will deal with it.

Turn 1 

Every turn starts with you sending out a Scouting force of just 3 units, and in this case they went to Section 1 (S1), where they were not immediately attacked, found that the terrain was fairly easy to move through, and that it would generate 4 Resource points if Collectors are sent there. They also though found signs that the area had been visited by someone else, a group they would later term the Isolationists. With this news they then hurried back to the Community to report in.

Turn 2

This time the Scouts went to S2, though on their return this group reported that they were so motivated by the importance of their mission that they also scouted S6! They found both areas to be easy to travel through though S2 was higher in resources (4RP) than S6 (2RP) and in fact had a lucky find in S2 and returned with some useful resources they gathered on the way back (+2RP). They are roundly praised when it turns out that they also not only found further signs of the same group of Isolationists, but in S6 actually located their home base! 

Meanwhile the community had also sent a mixture of 4 units out to recover resources from S1 who would return without incident with 4RP.

At the same time the Commander also sent 5 units to S1 looking for these other people (because the report from this turn’s scouting will not be available to him until the end of the turn) and they happened to run into a force of them who were in no mood to talk!

Encounter Battle - A bad place to meet - You would never have chosen this place to try and fight a battle, but frankly you have no choice.

Our first battle then is between the Fighting force the Commander sent out and a similar force of Isolationists. It seems likely that our scouts had been spotted so they sent fighters out to hunt them down and now the two groups have run into each other.  The Community needs to Destroy or Rout more Adversary units by the end of Round 7 than they lose themselves to declare victory.

The Commander has sent out Bannon, a solid leader who is respected by the troops, with two units of Recon, and three of Defenders. They are facing six groups of Isolationists of different levels. Bannon gets a feel for the enemy movement and deploys his teams.

Which resolves into this, with one adversary unit undiscovered at this point.

Round 1 - The two forces realise a firefight is inevitable and hostilities begin with a Defender unit opening up on the closest Isolationist group, killing two and forcing the remaining three to retreat. The junior Isolationists are the first to react, but they just stand there, stunned by the appearance of all these other people, who according to Isolationist doctrine should not even exist! The next Community unit to fire are those directly opposite one of the more professional looking Isolationist groups, and it’s near their maximum range, but they kill one and send the rest scurrying out of range, and coincidentally revealing the last Adversary group.

The Isolationists on the right now get their act together and shoot back at the Defenders nearest them, but their lack of training shows and they fail to cause any casualties, leaving the Defenders quite steady. The Defenders with Bannon have to move forward to get range to those Isolationists, which they do and kill one but the enemy are not shaken this time. 

The first group hit now recovers itself, while the first of the Recon units moves to also shoot but the long range is hampering them and no casualties are caused and the group are still not shaken. Then the other Recon unit moves to be able to fire at the only Isolationists without guns, kill one and making them retreat, but this brings them under fire and they take a casualty and have to pull back again.

Round 2 - the Community units are content to fight a battle of long range shooting, and they start whittling down the Isolationists, killing six to only one more loss, but weapons are starting to jam too.

Round 3 - the Community Defender units start showing their training though as two lots of the Isolationists are finished off and a third loses its nerve completely and routs. More shots and the poor sods with no guns are down to one survivour who pulls back, getting in the way of the guys behind him. It’s not all one-sided though as a Defender unit takes three casualties and is pushed back.

Round 4 - The Defender unit lead by Bannon kill three of the remaining Isolationists, a Recon squad down to just two functional guns manages to kill the last of the adversaries without guns, and the remaining Isolationist unit decides to retreat off the table, leaving just one enemy still there! So of course now is perfect timing for something “wild” to turn up, and naturally it’s behind the Community units!

Round 5 - Bannon’s unit was first to react, then almost anyone else with a still functioning firearm, but thankfully there were enough to deal with the big cats, and in the meantime the last Isolationist had made a run for it. The battle was over, and the Community force was victorious.

Aftermath - 5 brave members of our Community were lost that day, but thankfully the news that there were enemies abroad meant we soon had new volunteers to take their places. One Defender unit was particularly noticeable in holding its nerve and the force was quick to return home should any of them be needed again immediately.

Turn 3

While the leadership started deliberating on what to do about the Isolationist base, The Commander sent the Scouts out the other way, to S3, where they again found easy passage, the ability to recover 4 resources per turn, and signs that someone had been there. However, we already knew all about the Isolationists, so these must be someone else, later we realised these were the Brigands.

The great work on recovering resources last time had given us enough to start making a supply of manufacturing tools, so the force went back to S1 for more resources to get to work on being able to manufacture our own ammunition. They would return later with 4 Resources.

By which time the leaders had decided it was too risky to go after the Isolationists base until we we had our own ammunition supply in place, and instead the Commander was told to send a force to S2 and steal some resources from the Isolationists working there.

Raid Battle - Logging - The gatherers have been out cutting down trees.

With an eye to preparing for an assault on the Isolationists, the Commander sent his young cousin Mackie to lead the attack and sent a unit of Collectors, one of Recon, and three of Defenders. We found out later that the Isolationists must have increased their gathering parties after our battle with them, because there were five groups there, including one of their best!

As the Community force wasn’t going very far, there were no travelling effects to worry about, and the force could soon see movement ahead, so they spread out ready, though even when some of the Community got a view from the hill they couldn’t see much.

Round 1 - With the objective being to destroy or rout more Adversary units than the Community force loses, there’s no choice but to try and draw out the enemy, so the defenders on the hill open fire. Three of the Isolationists go down and the remaining two are forced to retreat, allowing the Defenders to see another group, before those two stop their retreat.

The Scouts swing wide to the right hoping to get sight of some more of them, but they can only see the same ones, who don’t seem to feel like moving. Mackie then leads a Defender unit forwards in the middle, while the other two Community units are told to bide their time. A further enemy group then shows itself, behind the others, but according to the early sighting of this lot there should be two more here somewhere.

Round 2 - The Defenders on the hill still have sight and range to the two left from their target last time, so fire at them again, killing both! This doesn’t shake the group next to them, but does make the: stay where they are. Unfortunately that means the Scouts are too far away to bother shooting with their less accurate weapons, so they decide to start moving forwards, and that flushes out a dangerous looking group that had been behind the clump of trees, who (after some shuffling forwards by other units) shoot at the Scouts, killing one but not breaking their nerve. 

However, the Community Defenders in the wood can now see them too, and they do much better, killing two and routing the remaining three! If these are the best troops the Isolationists have to offer, this is going to be a push-over! The last adversary group is also visible now too, and with them all clumped up like that it’s a shame they aren’t closer! They don’t even know that Mackie’s unit is approaching the wood!

Round 3 - The Scouts pull back hoping to draw the enemy on, and sure enough the last group that revealed itself takes the bait, moving right to where the elite’s were routed. The Defenders open fire again, killing one and forcing the rest to retreat back. The next lot of Isolationists thinking they are being more clever, staying in the shadow of the woo, but of course Mackie is sat the other side now, just waiting for them. The last remaining Isolationist team have no target but the Defenders on the hill so they shoot, killing one, then the Defenders shoot back killing one of them.

Round 4 - The retreating unit on the Isolationist left flank recover their composure, while the only two Defenders on the hill who can still fire break the nerve of their group on their right, killing another one in the process (but now only one Defender can still fire). Then it happens, the clueless Isolationists in the middle walk into the wood and Mackie and his Defenders let them have it! Six of them in optimal range and being in the trees doesn’t help much as two go down and the rest rout. There are two enemy groups left, both have been hurt, and the Community has lost just two fighters.

Then a commotion behind the Isolationists announces the arrival of a hungry animal pack! Mackie decides they’ve done enough and wants to get back to base to tell the Community leaders that the Isolationists are nothing to be scared of and they should hit the Isolationist’s home base as soon as possible!

Aftermath - even two casualties is a sad loss, but again people step up to take their place, and while none of the units gained any experience from that, Mackie highlighted what a good leader he is.

Turn 4