So. I had captured Alphonse of Bouche's Babes but James wasn't interested in ransoming him back, instead deciding that he wanted to rescue him. I'd brought in a tidy amount of income from my previous game as I'd rolled well for my territories that gave me variable amounts of cash, but instead of splashing out between fights I was saving up with the notion of getting another heavy and a suitably impressive weapon to give him. As a result my gang lined up for this fight with exactly the same equipment and personnel as last time.
The Rescue mission is something of a complicated one, but basically involves the defender (me) having as many fighters as I can roll on one die (which turned out to be 5) against as many fighters as the attacker (James) could roll on two dice (which turned out to be 11... or actually 7, as that was all of his gang). James's aim was to get one of his models into base-to-base contact with his captured Alphonse model (which I unsportingly put at the top of a building) to free him. In the meantime, my sentries would wander around randomly until the alarm was sounded, which at a very basic level was more likely to happen the more powerful the weapon was that James fired.
James clearly stated that he wasn't going to sneak around: he intended to take out all of my sentries as fast as possible, on the basis that although I could bring on the rest of my gang as reinforcements once the alarm was sounded there were only three more of them (Bruce, my slow, limping fighter, Arnold the heavy, and Jason the new juve) and if the rest of my gang were already down he could probably deal with them in short order. So with a blaze of shots and a yell of warcries Bouche's Babes gunned down and charged into close combat with (and then cut down) four out of five of my sentries, leaving Steven face down on the ground and crawling away, and only Sly upright and healthy. The writing appeared to be on the wall for the Last Action Heroes; was this a sequel too far?
As it turned out: no. I was able to bring on my reinforcements, who did very little - Bruce got shot at long rang by James's heavy, Arnold with his new ballistic skill of 5 rolled a 1 to hit and Jason also failed, meaning the intended target charged into close combat with Arnold, cut him down and then moved on to Jason. Sly, however, was the saviour - he put down on of James's fighters in one turn, then fired two more shots out at Bouche himself and his companion in the next, wounding Bouche and putting the other one down. These casualties meant that James had to take a Bottle test at the start of his go... and despite the heavy losses inflicted on their opponents, they decided Alphonse wasn't worth that much and turned to run.
This was an all-around good result for me. While I picked up a couple of injuries (most annoyingly to Jet, a leg wound meaning that my gunfighter with his close-ranged weaponry will now be limping into position, although his ability to run and hide with his Dive skill counteracts that slightly), I also got additional skills. All of my gang with long-ranged weapons can now hit on a roll of 2+ if their enemy is standing in the open, and Harrison picked up another advance meaning he has a Ballistic Skill of 6 so can hit on a 2+ even if his enemy is behind partial cover. The other good thing was that as James's gang rating was higher than mine I got a 'giant killer' bonus of money. Finally, James and I came to an agreement - I would give him Alphonse back for 30 creds and his weapons, which was a better deal than I'd get by ransoming the fighter into slavery. This gave me a tidy sum of money plus a spare shotgun and sword.
In the interests of developing my gang I picked up a new heavy, named Dolph. I initially equipped him with this newly-acquired shotgun ("Warning shot! ...a little low") with a view to buying him a heavy stubber as well (which I should be able to do after my next game), but I have now reconsidered. Arnold's head wound makes him unpredictable, and to avoid the effects he needs to roll below his Leadership (7) on two dice at the start of each go. If he hangs around with Harrison he can use Harrison's leadership characteristic of 9 for this test, but if he moves then he can't shoot his heavy stubber. Also, his Old Battle Wound means that he misses each fight on a roll of 1 beforehand, and I don't like the idea of my heavy support being missing or potentially un-useful. As a result I have decided to give Arnold's heavy stubber to Dolph, who's only an average shot but will at least turn up and not walk into walls, and will buy a plasma gun for Arnold. This means he can move and fire it in the same turn, and keep close to Harrison to use his leadership to try and prevent himself from acting Stupid or Frenzied.
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