Firefight Example: IRON vs. TANK

Burning Empires Firefight
1

So I got the book, and as it’ll be awhile before I can get a gaming group for it, I figured I would familiarize myself with Firefight abit while providing a nifty example for other people, all the while answering a burning question… IRON vs TANK?

First up, IRON

Name: Khazar

Beliefs:

“Miablo and his pitiful uprising are filthy worm lovers and it is my rightuous duty to crush them underneath my boot.”

“Master Armis is in all ways a better soldier than I, but I must kill him on the feild of battle.”

“I fought for my recognition, and I shall not suffer anyone telling me otherwise.”

Instincts:

“If someone fails to call me Your Eminence in court, call them on the boor they are.”

“Always come into a battle with a full foam resevoir.”

“If a soldier is immobilized, rescue them before leaving a battlefeild.”

Lifepaths:

Age: 41

Anvil Lord, Lord Pilot Anivl, Court Armiger, Man-At-Arms, Anvil Elite, Sergeant
Soldier, Born to Rule

Stats:
Will 4, Perception 4. Power 4, Forte 4, Agility 5, Speed 4, Resources 6, Circles 2, Steel 7, Hesitation 6

Wound Tolerences
Unarmored: Su H3, In H5, Ma H8, MW 10,
Armored: Su H7, In H9, Ma H12, MW 14

Skills:
Soldiering 4, Assault Weapons 4, Close Combat 4, Tactics 4, Intimidation 4, Slacker-wise 2, Squad Support Weapons 6, Vehicular Weapons 2, Zero G 2, Etiquette 2, Security 2, Armiger-Wise 2,
Iron-Wise 2, Command 4, Strategy 2, Oratory 2, Artillery 2, Anvil-Wise 2, Infilitration 2, Logistics 2, Ugly Truth 2

Traits:
Paranoid, Remote, Mark of Priveledge, Fugazi, Oddly Likable, Anvil Trained, Muscle, Corvis and Crucis, Anvil Lord, Iron Trained, Pragmatic, Booming Voice, Your Eminence

Gear:
Index 5 Iron, Personal Carrier, PAC

Relationships:
Forged Lord Armis, former sergeant, role model, and pawn of the Vaylen.
Illegitimate Daughter Illithia, sympathizer to infected refugees

Affiliation:
1d: Proud member of Urfan Nobility
3d: Elite Anvil Squad

Reputation:
3d: Powerfull and Undeterrable Anvil Lord

next up: TANK

2

TANK.

A PAc is an anti-personnel weapon.

3

More specifically, page 512:

The particle accelerator weapon—PAc, for short—is an energy projector
capable of dispersing troop concentrations and light vehicles but is
ineffective against shielded targets.

From how I read it, give him a Fusor…and an extra point in Power. Even with the +1 Power from the Iron, he’s only got 5 total and he needs 6 to handle the Fusor without penalty. MPIML should work too (I haven’t figured out yet how to specify different missle loadouts, such as using a HEAP one to get the Devastator trait). But that’s a one-shot deal. The way I read it the Heavy Laser has mobility issues. :slight_smile: It also doesn’t have the Devastator trait.

4

I assumed the PAC was capable of handling vehilces due to its damage catagory.

But if you’re telling me that’d make it very unlikely and boring, Agility 4 + Power 5 + Fusor it is.

5

Certainly wouldn’t be boring. I was just voting for the tank.

6

Do Superficial Wounds with a Devastator traited weapon still reduce the AT? I would think that fairly important to you if you are trying to scoot-n-shoot and wear down a heavily armored opponent.

Plus of course the higher damage. A Fusor’s Mark is the same as a PAc Superb.

7

You have to score a Mark result for Dev to work right?

-L

8

Not sure where it says that. Under the Devastator trait is just says:

This weapon rips apart armor. An Injury result reduces the target’s ATs by 1.

I’ll do a Search to see if it is mentioned somewhere else.

P.S. To change the missle type to HEAP, to add Devastator trait, with the MPIML I go through the Tech Burner process as mentioned at he bottom of page 518? Or would I just handle it as a separate purchase of the explosive and the MPIML?

9

An ‘Injury’ is a type of wound result.

Burning Empires has new Physical Tolerances. There are:

Superficial > Injured > Maimed > Mortal Wound

In other words, a weapon with Devastator must inflict an Injured result in order to reduce armor.

10

Oh, ok. So you need to do an Injury result in order to knock off a point of armor. As in: Superficial, Injured, Maimed.

11

Ah, I thought “Superficial Wound” counted as an “Injury”. Thanks for the clarification.

12

TANK

Name: Miablo

Beliefs:
“The struggle against facism is here, the Vaylen are a boogeyman used by our oppresors”

“Basilisn is a great man, but until I turn him from fighting the ghosts of ancient persecutors he is wasting his talents.”

“The nobility is scum and nothing I am going to do to them will be bad enough.”

Instincts:
“If someone questions your motives when drunk, use nonsense and spout philosophy or doctrine at them.”

“Convert surrendered Enemies”

“If someone is being ostracized, write off their ostracizers as bourgeuise noble wannabe scum.”

Age: 49

Lifepaths: Son of a Gun, Yeoman, Gun-rigger, Student, Philosopher, Thinker, Volunteer Soldier, Professionial Officer

Stats:
Will 5, Perception 6, Power 4, Forte 4, Agility 4, Speed 3, Resources 0, Circles 2, Steel 6

Wound Tolerances:
Unarmored: Su H3, In H5, Ma H8, MW 10
Armored: Su H5, In H7, Ma 10, MW 12

Skills:
Crew 3, Back-breaking Labor 3, Cleaning-wise 3, Close Combat 3, Vehicular Weapons 6, Vehicular Weapons-wise 3, History 3, Advanced Mathematics 3, Rhetoric 2, Cop-wise 3, Philosophy 4, Doctrine 3, Science 3, Composistion 3, Strategy Games 3, Strategy 4, Soldiering 3, Assault Weapons 2, Squad Support Weapons 2, Driving 4, Command 3, Tactics 4, Soldier-wise 3, Anvil-wise 3, Propaganda 4, Politics 3, Conspicious 3

Traits:
Paranoid, Redoubtable, No Nonsense, Proud Ciitizen, Resourcefull, Bearded, Idealogue, Humanist, Constituitional Activist, Educated, Alert, Hazed, Distortion Monkey, Drunk

Gear:
Ballistic Armor, Tank, Fusion Cannon

Relationships
Basilin, Kerrrn War-hero, political alliance.
Reginald, second in command

Reputations
1d Brave and determined freedom righter
1d Rabble rouser

Affiliations
1d Rag-tag communist band

Tank
3 Crew, 2 Passangers, Cargo
Tech Resources Ob 12
Profile 2
Integrity 6
Control -
Signals Automation 3
Sensors Automation 3
Ordinance Vehicular(2)
Vehicular Speed Ground 3
Security None

Tolerenaces:
Surface H8
Breach V1
Damaged V7
Destroyed V14

13

NOTE

I am impleneting the proposed changes of Khazar having Power 5/6 and a Fusor.

Situation: A revolt led by a commune is in process at a city which serves as an imperial checkpoint for space freight. Khazar knows that if the city is overrun, the Vaylen will gain a powerfull in. When moving in a small impromptu force to the city, his force was met in the snow by Miablo’s rag-tag revoloutionaries.

  1. The Units

Two units, one with Kzhazar and elite troops, and the other with Miablo, the benefit of his Tank and shoddy troops, but both with equal numbers.

  1. The Map

########
#…city…#
#…OTOO…#
#…#
#…H…H…#
#…#
#…OAOO.#
########

  1. The Objectives:

IRON objective: To stomp the revolt and keep the city under imperial command.

TANK objective: To make time for the city to be fortified and begin moving offworld re-inforcement.

  1. Making Contact

*Note: I would have considered Iron-wise and Vehicular-wise to be appropiate wises, had the opposing side have them.

4 dice from Khazar’s Iron

3 dice from Miablo’s tank

IRON: 4 successes

TANK: 0 Succeses.

This is me feeling incredibly bad for TANK.

Khazar chooses to take a posistion.

With higher tech sensors at his disposal, Khazar is able to quickly stage an ambush on the rebel troops by sweeping his team behind the right hill that is interposed between the forces.

  1. Disposistion

Both use Tactics, with command and soldier-wise as forks.

IRON: 3 succeses.

TANK: 4 Succeses.

IRON: Communications +1, Training +1, Sup Infilitration +1, Iron Superiority +1

TANK: Superior Weapons +1, Heavier Chassis +1, Greater Mobility +2

IRON Dispsosion: 7
TANK Dispoostion 8

Miabolis informs his man that the their advantage is out in the snow where the tank is unimpeded, and issues them to move out.

  1. Posistions

The GM calls the two hills as 1 point posistions.

Khazar calls for the hill on the right to become a 3 point posistion, as he’s occupying it.

Miablo designates the other hill as a 2 point posistion, incase he might want to use it.

The GM says that on the far right there’s an icy ridge that’d be a great poistion if one could reach it - 4P

Both hills provide pretty good cover - +2C

  1. Range

Nothing going on with range, Khazar doesn’t have longer weapons.

Next up: Choosing Actions

14

First Volley:

IRON: Observe! (Signals 4)
TANK: Suppresive Fire! (Tactics 4 + Vehicular Weaponwise)
(Unopposed)
IRON gets 2 succeses
TANK gets 4 succeses

Khazar is successfull in observing the enemy unit, and is able to use Direct Fire.

Miablo decides to uses one extra success from his Suppresive Fire to cause a Steel test for Khazar and two extra succeses to destroy a point of his hill’s cover, reducing it to 1.

Khazar initially only rolls 2 succeses, but one is a 6, which rerolls into another 6, which rerolls into a 5. Half of hesitation passed, he doesn’t lose his next action.

As Kzhazar leaned to the side of the snowy hill, he intended to spot the enemy, and spot them he did, with a roar of laser fire and a mighty burst from a tank-mounted fusor canon taking off half of the hill and with it the cover that Khazar and his men were clinging on hard. The fringes of the snow not instantly vaporized rained down on to his men, his body still shaking from the shockwave, but his spirit was undeterred.

Second Volley:
IRON: Direct Fire!(Tactics + Command + Intergal Targetter)
TANK: Advance!(Command + help from driver)
(Unopposed)
IRON gets 1 success.
TANK gets: 3 successes.

Khazar had to meet OB 2, he doesn’t get his shot oppurtunity - Miablo however, is successfull in Advancing, which he can use to take the left hill, gaining 2 cover and 2 temporary disposistion dice.

Khazar waited for the clear shot free from the tyrannical reign of the enemies fire in the air, a clear shot that would never happen before Miablo and his men had taken posistion at the opposite hill, one that still had a top left on it.

Third Volley:
IRON: Take Cover! (Command + Infiltration)
Tank: Take Cover! (Command + Drive)
(Unopposed)
IRON gets 2 succeses
TANK gets 3 succeses

Khazar chooses to use his extra success to perform a sensor sweep. If successfull, he gains +1 to Observe, Direct Fire or Suppresive Fire. 4 succeses, IRON gets the +1.

Miablo uses one extra success to increase his cover to 3, and another extra success to use a special action: Signals warfare - Gets 0 succeses. Superior Communication bonus stays with IRON.

[i]Khazar takes this brief moment of silence to iniate his Avatar’s detection program - it pinpoints the exact posistion of the enemy soldiers and tank moving behind the hill.

As Miablo orders his troops to move into defensive formation behind his cover, he turns to his signals operator within the tank if the jamming procedure was a success, and takes the operator’s loud cursing and kicking of the terminal as a no.[/i]

Ammo check:
IRON: 3 succeses
TANK: 4 succeses

Both narrowly pass thier obstacles, and do not run out of ammo.

NEXT UP: Second Exchange

15

NOTE:

I made a mistake on the last exchange. Even though Khazar wasn’t totally taken out until ralled, he still should of hesitated for one action due to still missing his hestitation. Doesn’t change how the volley would’ve played out so I’m going to continue as planned, props to Thor and Coffeestain for pointing it out.

— SECOND EXCHANGE —

First Volley:

IRON: Suppresive Fire! (Tactics+Sensor Sweep+Integral Targetting)
TANK: Suppresive Fire! (Tactics+VWW)
(Unopossed)
IRON gets 4 succeses
TANK gets 1 succes

Miablo can’t do anything with the 1 success.

Khazar spends 1 success to give Miablo a steel test, and 2 successes to reduce Miablo’s cover to 2.

Miablo misses his Steel test by 1 and hesitates for the next action.

Khazar, still dusted with the fragments of his former cover, saw time to repay the favor to Miablo - and did so in kind, blasting a hole through his opponent’s terrain to expose the Tank’s hull, and causing Miablo to stumble his orders as he scrambles to regain protection.

Second Volley:
IRON: Suppresive Fire! (Tactics+Intergal Targetting)
TANK: Hesitates!
IRON gets 3 succeses

Khazar is able to drop Miablo’s cover again, to 1.

Miablo forgets engaging the enemy and instead is scurrying for what sheilding is left on his side, just as another blast of the Khazar’s fusor rips through his new defense.

Third Volley:
IRON: Flank! (Tactics + Anvil-wise)
TANK: Was Direct Fire, as observation was aborted, Hesitates instead.
IRON gets 3 succeses.

Khazar uses his extra succeses to get +1 dice to his next Fire action directly, and attempt another sensor sweep(Which succeeds, granting another +1) The reason he chose to go for the sensor sweep rather than the bonus directly is that he may not be able to follow up immediately with a Direct fire option, as the ammo check is going to be hard.

But by Flanking, he has lost the single cover die and 3 points of Disposistion he gained from holding the posistion. Whether it pays off will be dependant on how big a bloodbath is coming up.

Khazar sensed the confusion in his enemy. He decided that this was the time to press for the kill - His men swarmed out into the snow, moving to either side of their opponent, ready to lay down fire.

They both miss their ammo checks. Khazar, rightly so, but Miablo just rolled horribly. because both of their weapons have the Heater trait, this means they both take an H5 wound from the searing heat of their weapon - Which isn’t enough to phaze either of them.

— THIRD EXCHANGE —

First Volley:
IRON: Flank! (Tactics + Anvil-wise)(While reloading)
TANK: Withdraw! (Tactics + Command + Pilot help)
Opoosed
IRON gets: 4 successes
TANK gets: 4 successes

Tie breaker:One of Khazar’s troops(Infl 5) vs. the tank’s speed(3)… Normally, using Speed would impose a double obstacle penalty, but the tank waives that roll as it has one speed catagory higher than its opposistion. The tie-breaker is also a tie - Neither causes any effect.

Miablo’s gambit does cost him the 2 Disposistion and 1 cover die by losing his posistion, however.

As Khazar took a moment to let his guns cool down, their time to rip apart the enemies of the empire close at hand, he attempted to seize an even greater tactical vantage point - An attempt striffled Miablo’s willingness to abandon his cover, and the Tank’s capability to outrun his men.

Second Volley:
IRON: Direct Fire! (Tactics + Command + Sensor + Intergal Targetting)
TANK: Advance! (Command + help from driver)
(Unopposed)
IRON gets 1 success
TANK gets 2 successes

Miablo was hoping for 3 succeses, allowing him to lower Khazar’s Dispostion, but was not so lucky. Khazar totally whiffs, with 7 worms and 1 success.

Khazar led his men to press fire on the retreating troops, assuming their destruction to be imminent - what he didn’t expect was Miablo’s Tank charging straight for him, with his troops screaming a warcry as they charged Khazar’s own.

Third Volley:
IRON: Direct Fire! (Tactics + Command + Targetting)
TANK: Close Combat! (Tactics + Command)
IRON gets 2 successes
TANK gets 3 successes

Miablo gets his close combat action causes Khazar to lose one dispostion, dropping to a 6. Khazar still fails to gain any shot oppurtunity.

Khazar watched as his Fusor shots narrowly avoided contact with the tank, which was moving far too aggressively for his concentration to remain in tact. As the it became close enough to see his hated enemy’s insignia on the Tank’s side, he knew this was not going to be the sort of battle he hoped for.

I Corner Him and Stab Him in the Face! (Or, I Corner Him and Run Him Through Tank Treads)

TANK: Ramming! (Driving)
IRON: Grenades! (Close Combat)
Opposed
TANK gets 1 success
IRON gets 1 success

Tie breaker(Agility): IRON wins with 1 additionial success, increasing his DoF by 1
DoF roll: 2, counted as 3, which is still the same thing, V4 damage, which is enough for a breach, causing the Tank to lose 1 die of Integrity, lowering it to 5 and reducing its speed to 2.

As the tank treads span towards Khazar aiming to take his armor-encased body under them, the anvil lord grits his teeth, throwing a SCArE grenade from his hip out to the menacing machine and diving into the snow. For a moment he wondered if the deafening noise heard above him was death. When he opened his eyes, he saw the smoke of the explosive seething from Miablo’s tank, revealed a crunched in sector of the hardened surface.

Ammo check:
IRON: 4 succeses (passed)
TANK: 4 Succeses (passed)

Next up, fourth exchange.

NOTE: I had to imporvise exactly how Vehicle vs. personal close combat action worked, but its a pretty reasonable assumption: Grenades are versus everything 'xcept Grenades.

16

Luke: Yeah, I do believe I did that, thinking Cover applied to Unit actions. D’oh.

Also: Scripting against yourself is a bitch. No really. It is. Its a very small jump from playing rock paper sicssors with yourself. You ever try to do that? Huh? Why don’t you right now? Yeah, see that little buzzing part in your head? In a week it will grow into a tumor.

But none the less, next Exchange!

— Fifth Exchange —

First Volley:
IRON: Flank!
Tank: Observe!
Opposed
IRON gets 4 succeses.
TANK gets 1 successes

Khazar uses his extra succeses to lower the enemies dispostion from 8 to 5.

Miablo tank’s canon angirly swiveled around to spy where the Anvil-clad troops had gone, and prepare for bombardment - just as Miablo noticed that they had all vacated in the chaos of the last engagement, instead forming a semi-circle over the path to the city.

Second Volley:
IRON: Flank!
TANK: Flank!
Opposed
IRON gets 5 succeses(!)
Tank gets 2 success

Khazar takes 1 more from the enemy’s dispostion and chooses to grant his next Direct Fire a +2.

Outraged, Miablo ordered his men to rush the far ends and instead trap Khazar’s men in a pincer - A plot interrupted quickly when two Anvil-clad soldiers stepped out of debris strewn from the destruction of the hills, assault lasers readied

Third Volley:
IRON: Direct Fire!
TANK: Hesitates(Was Direct Fire)
Unopposed
Khazar rolls 5 succeses - 3 shot oppurtunites.

Miablo is in abit of a pickle here - Khazar’s got one Support Weapons troop with a Fusor, and four men with assault lasers - Miablo’s tank could easily take the lasers, but if he didn’t have the Tank take the Fusor, than the blast could take down two men - Enough to wipe out his Disposition. Miablo decides to save the tank as a target until absolutely nessecary -

1st Riflemen fires at infantry:
2 success rolled, 4 on the DoF. H10, Infantry goes down. Miablo’s disposistion at 3.

2nd Riflemen fires at infatry:
2 successes rolled, 3 on the DoF. Again, infantry goes down. Miablo’s dispostion at 2.

Before the plot was recognized by Miablo’s revoloutionaries, two of thier bodies had already been pierced by laser fire, leaving momentarily glowing holes in their chests which now were filling with snow

3rd Support Weapons fires at Tank:
4 succeses rolled, 5 on the Die of fate translated to 6. V14. Tank destoryed, and another soldier is directly taken out, lowering Miablo’s disposition to 1.

The noise outside was heavy with the current carnage. Miablo felt a moment of quiet reassuredness inside of his heavily sheiled vehicle, just before Khazar gave the call for the support fire on Miablo - the searing blast not only killed a soldier stepped in front of the tank, it also cut through Miablo’s holl solidly.

Now for checking the wreck - Ob 6 driving test easily blown - Signals guy, rolls a 6, killed instantly. The artillerist, rolls a 5, merely maimed. Miablo himself, rolls a 4, also narrowly escaping death, but the disposition has been dropped to 0, thus ending the fight.

Miablo pulled himself out of the flaming wreckage, noting atleast one of his compartiot’s blood coated the charred floor. As Miablo got outside, he could see that his trusted gunner had already beat a hasty retreat in the snow - To where, he didn’t know, but he knew that if he didn’t want to die in an interragator’s chamber, he’d better hurry up on his ally’s path."

In this case, Khazar only last one die, placing him into the smallest amount of compromise - Miablo’s player asks that Khazar’s men don’t immediately chase after him, and Khazar’s player doesn’t mind the idea - they’re busy crushing what’s left of the city’s insurgency into the dust.

Shit I learned:
Will and Steel are pretty important in a fight.

A commander probably isn’t going to get many licks in himself, so his tactics or command is much more important than his weapons skill, though it does make ammo checks easier. Even if alone, Tactics is very, very important.

Signals or Sensors are really good skills to actually have.

I think if you can wait for it, Observe is a pretty nice thing to script at the end of an Exchange - That way, you can script againt a follow-up direct fire if you missed the observe.

Huge thanks to all spectators and Thor, coffeestain and Luke for pointing out the glaring, horrible mistakes that I made which will haunt me to my grave.

17

Dude, so awesome! Excellent job!

Rawking fight! Go Iron and Fusors! We are the future!

RAWR!
-Luke