GI Joe: Operation Long Road Home

 It has been a long while since I've played anything - June I played some Sons of Mars, and prior to that it was March for Majestic 13. However, I was talking with a buddy of mine here in town and he's A) very interested in my GI Joe wargaming efforts, and B) volunteered his time and 3D printer to help set me up with some vehicles. With that, I decided I should make the effort to clear off our dining room table (which is more a catch-all space than anywhere we actually eat) and get set up for a GI Joe game. 

Fortunately, the table is exactly 3 feet wide, meaning my battle mat covered the entire width of the table with no gap. I already had a mission in mind that I'd plotted a while back, so I got my table set up and printed my rosters.

Representing the GI Joes:

• Sgt. Slaughter (Leader; traits: Leader, Master of Melee, Veteran, Tough as Nails), armed with a drill sergeant's baton and pistol.
• Beachhead (Specialist; traits: Indomitable, Infiltrator) armed with a SMG.
• Gung-Ho (Regular; trait: Nerves of Steel) armed with a grenade launcher and pistol.
• Spirit (Regular; trait: Eagle-Eyed), armed with an automatic rifle.
• Clutch (Regular; trait: Dodge), armed with a pistol.

And the Cobra roster:

• The Baroness (Specialist; traits: Smart, Dodge), armed with a pistol.
• Xamot (Regular; trait: Observant), armed with a pistol
• Fred Broca (Regular; trait: Determined), armed with an automatic rifle.
• 4 Crimson Guardsmen (Regulars; trait: Loyal), armed with automatic rifles.

And the mission: 

Sgt. Slaughter and his handpicked team of Joes have successfully captured Tomax, one of the "Crimson Twins" and a major financier of the terrorist organization known as COBRA. Unfortunately, they ran him to ground in the heart of Springfield, USA - an entire city operating as a Cobra base. Racing to leave the city and reach the extraction point, their vehicle was disabled, forcing them to continue on foot with Tomax in tow. 

The deadly Baroness and Tomax's twin brother Xamot have arranged a lethal surprise for the Joes on the edge of Springfield's suburbs in the form of a squad of Crimson Guardsmen.

The Joes start at one end of the road that crosses the table from corner to corner, and have to reach the other end while Cobra forces fire on them from both sides, without losing control of Tomax - currently being dragged by Clutch. 

Beachhead enters the doughnut shop, quickly scaling to the roof and taking a shot at the Crimson Guard lining up a sniper's shot, but misses. The Guardsman fires off a shot from the hip, injuring Beachhead, before charging the wounded Joe with his bayonet. Meanwhile, another Guardsman unleashes a burst of gunfire towards the Joes on the ground - Slaughter and Gung-Ho are unscathed (though Slaughter's ducked for cover), but Spirit is put out of action. 

In response, Slaughter hurls himself bodily on to the roof of the doughnut shop, landing feet first in the Guardsman's ribs, putting the Cobra operative out of action, while Gung-Ho fires a grenade up into the second Guardsman's sniper nest, wounding him. 

Their courage bolstered by the early removal of Spirit and Beachhead's injuries, Fred, the other Crimson Guards, and Xamot emerge from cover, and Gung-Ho is injured by a shot from Fred. 

"Not on my watch, rat-breath!" Slaughter bellowed, hurling himself off the roof and on to Fred, sending him out of action before getting shot in turn by Xamot. Struggling to his feet, Beachhead squeezed off a shot at Xamot, causing both Xamot and Tomax to collapse to the ground, their twin-based psychic powers resulting in both of them taking a wound. Gung-Ho shook off the wound he'd taken, rising to his feet and sending a grenade into the midst of a pair of Guardsmen, injuring one of them. 

Small arms fire only serving to make Sgt Slaughter angrier, he rose to his feet and, seeing Xamot down and the Baroness in reach, went after the femme fatale.

"What are you doing, you idiot? The Geneva Convention-" she started but was cut off.

"Listen here, Missy, when it comes to you poison puking Cobra maggots, they ain't even Geneva Suggestions!" Slaughter roared before sending her flying with one bone-shattering punch.

Gung-Ho, Beachhead and Clutch exchanged fire with the Crimson Guardsmen; rising shakily to his feet, Xamot tried shooting Slaughter again and missed, before turning and firing on Clutch in a desperate attempt to free his brother. "Not on your life!" Slaughter bellowed, shooting Xamot down and putting him out of action. 

The remaining Crimson Guardsmen were quickly mopped up; Slaughter threw the unconscious Baroness and Xamot over his shoulders as well, ready to deliver all of them to the Joes' maximum security prison to await trial. 

***

That was something else. I was prepared for Sgt Slaughter to be a beast in melee - his "Veteran" trait means he rolls D12s instead of D10s for all rolls, and "Master of Melee" means in melee he rolls twice and takes the better result - but he took down five of the seven Cobra operatives on the board, almost totally by himself, often with a single punch. Beachhead, Clutch and Spirit could have stayed home.

There also wasn't a lot of movement across the board; I don't think any of the Joes actually reached the halfway point until after the last of the Cobra forces were taken down. Part of this I think came down to deploying Cobra on both sides of the road as a shooting gallery; if I were to rerun this scenario I'd start Cobra in one of the non-road corners to give the Joes a chance to move and seek cover as they go while forcing the Cobras to have to decide between movement and shooting instead of largely sitting in cover and waiting for the Joes to enter range. 

Overall, I'm happy with the mission, and I may offer to run it for some friends and let them play both sides while I referee. I should also get my Cobra Alley-Vipers painted and maybe substitute them in for the Crimson Guards.