Here you go:
Gothika -v- The Hand of Redemption
Joffrey attacked my Guilder Contact. If he took the Guilder Contact, he would open up a border with Octavian which he might be able to use for some strategic advantage.
Once again, Joffrey got to pick the scenario, and he went for another Hit & Run. He rolled a Bushwack. To win a Bushwack, the attacking gang needs to take the opposing gang leader out of action, and they can do that by any means necessary. Not an easy task when the opposing leader is Abraham.
Joffrey rolled to see how many girls he could bring along, and he got 6. Shamora, Bellatrix, Morgana, Tabitha, Esmerelda and Maleficent.
In response, I rolled a 1, meaning that Abraham would start on his own. Given that in a Bushwack, the Attackers can deploy anywhere within 8" of a Defender, that was problematic. As much of a badass as Abraham is, he definitely can't survive a simultaneous charge from 6 Escher. In fact, he would be flat out not getting killed by just Shamora on her own.
With that in mind, I deployed Abraham on top of the third level of a tower, next to the only ladder granting access to that level. Each Escher would have to attack him one at a time and he would have a high ground advantage in any combat. The high ground advantage would slightly negate any charge advantage of any of the Escher, which would meant that Abraham was superior in close combat to all of the the Escher with the exception of Shamora.
There isn't much separating Abraham and Shamora in terms of their close combat abiltiy. Shamora is a little bit more skillful, and hits harder with her plasma pistol and powersword, but Abraham is tougher. Shamora is probably slightly more dangerous, especially if she gets the charge. So Abraham's placement at the tp of a ladder was important since it took away much of any charge bonus Shamora would get, making it very unlikely that he would get taken down in the first turn of any combat and giving him a clear advantage in future rounds. Simply put, if the combat lasted more than one round, Abraham would probably win. He'd likely lose a lot of skin in the process though.
I set up Abraham in his spot, and Joffrey set up his girls all around him two levels below, except for Maleficent, who had a high balistic skill, whom he set up on a neighbouring tower.
Turn 1
Joffrey went first and moved his girls into charge range of Abraham for next turn. Maleficent took a shot with a bolt pistol, hitting him but not wounding him and leaving him pinned.
Abraham recovered from being pinned and went into hiding at the top of the ladder.
Turn 2
Morgana was first cab off the rank, and she raced to the top of the ladder, only to receive a boot in the face from Abraham, wounding her once, dropping her two stories down onto the ground, and taking her out of action.
On my second turn, I got lucky and rolled three reinforcements. Then I rolled to see who those reinforcements were and got even luckier when it turned out to be Jacob, Isaac and Abijah. They came on to the left side of the table which meant that they only had to move a little bit to get a line of sight at the ladder leading to Abraham. Once they went onto Overwatch next turn, The Escher would have to climb up two stories, while weathering a hail of Heavy Stubber and Heavy Bolter fire. Then they would get to fight Abraham. So in my view, at that time, the balance of the game had swung dramatically in my favour.
I ran them into position for next turn. Abraham went to the edge of the tower and dropped a plasma grenade onto the head of Shamora, also hitting Tabitha and Belatrix, dealing a wound to all three, and pinning Esmerelda. Grenades can be glorious. Best of all, the Plasma Blast stayed in place at the foot of the ladder preventing anyone from approaching the foot of the ladder. Heh.
Turn 3
All of the Escher recovered from pinning. Joffrey realised he was in trouble and sent Bellatrix, Tabitha and Maleficent after Abijah, Jacob and Isaac. He kept Esmerelda back with Shamora, waiting for the Plasma cloud to fizzle out. Maleficent took a shot at Abijah from the second story of her tower and did him a wound.
On my turn, I rolled another 3 reinforcements, and Zohar (stupidity), Esau and Jemuel turned up on the right side of the table. Zohar remained stupid for the turn, but I ran Esau and Jemuel over towards the middle of the table. They would be in a position to help Abraham in a couple of turns time.
Abijah stayed pinned and Jacob and Isaac went into Overwatch. So did Abraham, holding a plasma grenade out over the lip of the tower, ready to drop it as soona s either Esmerelda or Shamora went for the ladder.
Turn 4
On Joffrey's turn, the plasma cloud fizzled out. To the left, Maleficent, Belatrix and Tabitha spread out and presented targets to Isaac, Abijah and Jacob. Joffrey would never normally do that (because it's stupid), but it showed that he was going to attempt a charge next turn and didn't want whoever was climbing the ladder to be shot at. In the middle of the table, he moved Esmerelda out of cover, presenting her as an easy target for Abraham. Tempting as that was, I elected not to drop the grenade on her, because doing so would allow Shamora a free charge up the ladder at Abraham. Joffrey then moved Shamora out of cover as well, placing her in a position where she would be able to both shoot at Abraham this turn with her plasma pistol. Esmerelda would also be able to shoot.
Given that Abraham was safe from a charge, for this turn at least, I had him drop the plasma grenade on Esmerelda, who was the closest and easiest target and she went down.
Maleficent, Belatrix and Tabitha shot at Isaac, Jacob and Abijah and succeeded in taking another wound off Abijah, taking him down.
Shamora shot at Abraham with her plasma pistol and wounded him, which was not ideal, since he would need as many wounds as possible if he was to defeat her.
In my turn, Ram and Joshua turned up on my side of the table. The plasma cloud from the grenade which had taken down Esmerelda exploded out 4 inches, hitting her again, wounding her and taking her out of action. It also barely missed Shamora, which was agreat shame, because if it had done a wound to her, Abraham might have been able to take her out this turn. Joffrey felt differently.
Zohar recovered his wits and ran 14" to catch up with Esau and Jemuel, who would be within pistol range of Shamora next turn.
Over to the left, Joffrey had been wise to spread his girls far enough apart so that Isaac and Jacob could not walk fire between targets. Isaac took to Maleficent with his heavy stubber, wounding her and causing her to fall over the edge of a balcony, which caused another wound, taking her down. Jacob opened up on Belatrix with his heavy Bolter, taking her out of action. Ram ran fast towards the left of the table ready to mop up any downed Escher. Both Ram (hip shooting skill) and Joshua took a shot at Tabitha, with Joshua managing to wound her.
I put Abraham on Overwatch again, daring Shamora to make the charge next turn.
Abijah recovered to a fleshwound.
Turn 5
Joffrey passed his bottle check. With only Shamora on her feet, and surrounded by enemies, Joffrey took the only option open to him and charged Abraham. Abraham duly dropped another plasma grenade to the foot of the ladder and Shamora took another wound and was pinned in the open at the foot of the ladder.
In my turn, Amon and Boaz turned up turned up and the plasma cloud at the foot of the ladder remained in place.
Amon and Boaz had turned up on my side of the table, which was within pistol range of Shamora, which meant that Shamora was looking at taking autopistol fire from Amon and Esau, shotgun fire from Joshua and Boaz, another plasma grenade from Abraham and even a stub gun round from Jemuel. Tabitha was the only other ganger not down, and she was covered by Isaac, Abijah and Jacob. Ram was also close by, and would autoremove Maleficent this turn.
Barring a miracle, the game would be over at the end of my close combat phase and I would take the Old Ruins. Everyone could see this, and people were already talking about it being a massive win given the uneven starting odds. None of my guys were even pinned. Joffrey was clearly having a bit of difficulty dealing with suffering such a thrashing, made worse no doubt by the knowledge that it had been fair and square, and that he had started from what should have been an unassailable position of strength.
These are the times when it can be appropriate to show a bit of grace to an opponent. There isn't any need to add insult to injury. A big win speaks for itself.
In that regard, the gracious thing to do was to offer Joffrey the opportunity to voluntarily bottle out. Normally, you can only bottle out in your own turn, but seeing as how there wouldn't be another turn after this one, the only difference between the game ending now or at the end of the turn would be how many of his gangers would be rolling on the serious injuries chart. As things were it would be a minimum of 3, possibly four, by the end of my turn it would probably be 5, possibly all 6. If that happened, it would be hands down the worst defeat anyone had suffered in the entire campaign, worse even than the first Shoot Out I played in.
By bottling out, Joffrey would still lose the Old Ruins, but he would save at least one, possibly 3 of his girls from serious injuries.
Underhand: Would you like to bottle out?
Joffrey: [lip curling in disgust at the very thought of being offered honourable surrender by a hated foe] beslubber off, mindless fleshy pawn of the Illuminati.
So, Ram charged Maleficent, and autoremoved her, Jacob heavy boltered Tabitha out of action and Shamora was wounded multiple times, going down, but not out of action.
Final Score:
11/0/0
0/1/5
I took the Old Ruins.