Early Fallen

[kafka47]

I thought that Early Fallen was brilliant in its execution.

I was wondering Rick...Are you saying that you would have prefered a more structured adventure? You see, I think most of us do like the free form (true this adventure railroaded the players quite a bit) but it is done all in the noble cause of getting us ready for 1248.

This for me is where Traveller could be going more in the way of setting events up rather D&D like adventures which lead the players to know what is in every room...when I begin to think about wasn't most of the CT adventures the same. Sure they had you had to roll 8+ everywhere but the parameters for action were always in broad strokes.

Keep up the excellent work, MJD and keep them a coming! Making us wait is Suffering as much as the road to Suffren for the 1248 sourcebook.

 

[RickA]

I'm not sure, Kafka. I like the idea that almost all of the pages of the adventure are actual adventure, that's a big bonus. It's a good story too, so I'll see how it works out.

The biggest worry I have is that it looks like the whole thing will unfold the way the author has laid it out no matter what the players do. In other words he hasn't so much written an adventure with the PC's in the central roles as written a neat short story that the PC's can participate in peripherally.

 

[MJD]

The events described will happen pretty much as described. Up to the Referee and Players how this affects them. Will they be playing politics in th backgorund? ruinning a makeshift field hospital? Galloping around with a sabre and a mob of rebel cavalry?

The idea of Early Fallen was to present the plans of both sides and the likely course of events, and just drop the characters in.

I'm interested to hear from anyone wanting to write sytstemless TNE or Generic traveller adventures.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Aye-Aye, Diceless. One reply to your request for writers coming your way.

Pax Solee!

Liam

 

[Djct]

Play report

Hi there - thought that I would share a play report here as a way of consolidating my memory and hopefully some help for others!

Initial notes - I have three players, one has played a lot of TNE before, one has played mostly 1st ed WFRP, and one is new to RPGs (less than 6 months). We have just finished an epic WFRP campaign and I wanted to return to TNE after a probably 10 year hiatus. We are all early forties, male and Scottish! We have about 2:30 a week to play games and mix RPGs, board games and tabletop war games.

I'll skip character descriptions until a later post as I don't have them to hand, but I will note that it took an whole night to reorient ourselves with character creation and roll up characters. Not ideal, but the detailed character generation helped flesh out the characters (our recent experience with WFRP and detailed creation helped).

I should also note I considered T5 conversion but my familiarity with vanilla TNE and its quirks meant I felt I could be sure of running the game as close to what I wanted and T5 might not have the same feel.

I chose Early Fallen as with my previous group (1 survivor plays with us), we had run through the whole of the published TNE adventures. So a CD-ROM of the extended canon was ordered and Early Fallen seemed short and explosive enough to test my players patience with the game.

We'll see how we get on! The following posts will tell, hopefully giving a flavour of our adventures without getting bogged down in detail. I hope you enjoy.

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week 1

The team are assigned to a reconnaissance mission on the planet of Amoy, on the wrong side of the Vampire Highway from the Reformation Coalition. The planet is a potential staging post to the Covenant of Sufren, and the characters are to ascertain if there is any sympathetic power on the planet.

They are dropped on the planet at night in scraggy, lightly forested mountain terrain. The planet has been bombed back to TL4 and there are signs of scattered settlements. The team settled in and made camp, very paranoid about making sure they were wearing or using nothing that could identify themselves as RC.

On sunup they scouted the area and identified a number of local villages. They were content to watch and observe, possibly thinking about heading to a bigger town. Then they recieved a coded comms blast on an RCES frequency pleading for help. They quickly triangulated this as coming from a nearby village (known as Maiteen) and decided to go look.

They observed a squad of soldiers holding the village to ransom and separating some people from the main group. The party's interaction then got really interesting, with one member (the one newest to RPGs) refusing to get involved due to the watching brief they had been given. The others were more positive about interaction, but we're concerned about the odds! This was a great thing to observe, with the team playing off each other well.

They sneaked closer and continued to observe, until their radios chattered again on the RCES frequency. This surprised them as there was not supposed to be an RCES agent on planet. A young girl staggered out of a hut and fired what was obviously a high tech RC laser, and then all hell broke loose.

The characters decided then to intervene. In doing so we saw some of the gnarliness of TNE combat with weapon ranges, penetration, high explosives, running speed and melee combat all coming in to play. As a note to self I will need to remember both initiative and recoil rules next session. The enemies were confused as they fought villagers, and poorly trained. Some were on horses. The battle split into 2 sections, with two going after the main group and one seeking to rescue the girl, who was being shot at as she ran for cover. All in all pretty grisly with many dead at the end, the highlight being a sword fight between one PC and a soldier over the prone girl which ends up with the PC being incapacitated with a head hit.

The session ended with the young girl regaining consciousness as the characters argued about getting out of there fast to retain anonymity (one had switched to using a laser pistol for effectiveness). As the surviving villagers gathered about them the young girl declaimed that she knew it, that he had promised they would come to help them, that the Star Vikings would be their saviours!

Fade to black

Notes for next session

- dealing with the surviving soldiers as the villagers want to exact revenge
- learning more about the local situation (and, for me, trying to get them to feel sympathy for the villagers)
- dealing with the inevitable response from the local government
- news of the Star Vikings leaking out to surrounding villages

Hope you enjoyed this report

 

[Djct]

Play report

week 2

The curtain raised this week on the characters still debating whether to split from the village as quickly as possible. What made them stay was the need to provide medical aid for the young girl and other villagers injured in the fighting. One of the characters is a fully qualified medical doctor who worked with another character all night and in to the next day saving many of the wounded.

It became clear from conversations with the villagers that a Star Viking called Cynic had been active here until last year, becoming a folk figure until he had a showdown with the planetary governor and lost. The girl who had used the radio, Lauren, was his adopted daughter and had been radioing every time she saw a shooting star.

One character discussed the town's plight and failed to convince the town's new leader, Mata, that they were not Star Viking (due to conspicuous laser fire in the battle and a very poor persuasion roll). While the village was disappointed that RCES marines did not arrive in their hundreds, word of their appearance got out and villagers from neighbouring villages began to arrive.

They would be needed to defend Maiteen. It became clear from both the views of the villagers and from intercepted radio messages that a punitive raid would be coming. This gave the characters their next dilemma. They must have discussed high-tailing it and leaving for a good 40 minutes. I was prepared to let them do this, as they were obviously caught between the mission briefing of observe and report, and the human tragedy of the village. I countered this by showing the disappointment of the villagers, the sadness of Lauren, and the new combatants coming from further villages. Even then they were almost leaving, having helped the town prepare barricades, until they had a change of heart!

Then they set about making Molotov cocktails, more barricades and training one young local, Deck, using Cynic's laser and a new battery pack. There was a good thirty minutes of planning for this as well.

An advance cavalry force arrived and proceeded to charge into the village not expecting resistance. They got a real shock. Under slung grenades, automatic and laser weapon fire and a hail of Molotov cocktails got them trapped in general village square. They then broke and ran in all directions, losing about half there number to death or imprisonment. The villagers were chanting 'star vikings' as they celebrated victory.

The cavalry retreated to a safe distance and the most recent intercepted radio message suggests that they have to lay in wait for the infantry to arrive in 4 days time.

End of report

Notes

- used recoil and initiative
- used automatic fire rule which seemed difficult to believe - fired 25 rounds in bursts at short range into a column of horses and only 2 hits. Was I doing it right?
- for next time - will the group now stay when forced with higher numbers of opposition?

 

[Badbru]

week 2

Notes

- used recoil and initiative
- used automatic fire rule which seemed difficult to believe - fired 25 rounds in bursts at short range into a column of horses and only 2 hits. Was I doing it right?
- for next time - will the group now stay when forced with higher numbers of opposition?

Just a quick note to say you're not wasting your time, someone is following this thread and your groups progress.

Re Autofire it sounds like you were doing it right according to the rules. Twilight2000 2.2 rules are essentially identicle and the last time I played that the GM ran it according to the rules. My character wasn't an attrocious shot but fired an entire 100rnd belt, whilst prone, in two or three 5rnd bursts per turn, through a PK gpmg and only hit about two or three targets with one rnd each. This was short range too. The autofire rules are not so great.

When I ran TNE auto fire was a direct fire task same as single shot shooting. However this was subject to recoil effects, range, loss of dice per range, and recoil etc etc. The task roll determined if the burst was on target. Failure meant you missed but rolled half the missed dice for adjacent targets. Success meant you hit with one rnd from the burst and then instead of rolling more d20's you rolled d6's for any remaining rnds in the burst that could hit. Any "one" result, I chose one because all TNE is roll low mechanic and my dice have dots rather than numbers, any result of one was an additional hit from the burst.
This meant players actually used their skill in autofire but had a flat roughly 17% chance to get more than one hit per successfull burst.
For horses I'd have maybe given a to hit bonus if side on as they're a much larger target. Normally reduce the range as in -1 diff mod but if it was short anyway perhaps a flat -4 or -5 off each d20 roll.

 

[Djct]

Thanks for the response. I am reporting as a way to fix and record progress so I can keep track, but it is nice to know someone else is reading too! Have you run the adventure?

On auto fire yes I think i did it right. I probably should have given a bonus for big targets. In may try your solution if it comes up again, but the experience has so scarred the players against auto fire they may never try it again!

Chatting with one of the players after playing football tonight they said they were enjoying it but were a bit disappointed that it had turned into big battles rather than stealthy reconnaissance. I will need to try to build that in to the next few sessions!

 

[Badbru]

No i haven't run it yet, just read through it several times.
Unfortunatly for your players from where they're at the battles just get bigger and bigger however there are plenty of opportunities, or they could make plenty of opportunities, to do stealth/recon of the opfor, or little commando strikes behind the lines.

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week three

We began in the aftermath of last week's victory. The cavalry camped half a klick away and intercepted radio suggested that infantry would be following up in four days.

The PCs now accepted that they had thrown their lot in with the villagers and so had 2 priorities - shoring up the defences and treating the wounded. The doctor treated the enemy casualties and the others put together a hospital extension for their prisoners.

In the meanwhile the cavalry set pickets round the village in order to interdict traffic, while the remaining element camped in full view - still acting arrogant at unruly villagers and under orders to observe. Despite the pickets, people from nearby villages continued to trickle in and bolster the rebels.

The characters then decided to wage a guerrilla war on the pickets and hunted them with bows having tracked them with a jury-rigged remote observation system based on pris binoculars linked to their computer unit. The bows were inexplicably purchased during character generation. I upped their damage char to 2d (rather than 1d-1 in the RCEG) as I wanted the bows to be reasonably effective. It seemed to work ok and not break anything too much. The guys spent a happy hour hunting in the pitch dark, killing 2 and leaving 2 heavily wounded with messages for their opponents left on the bodies. The doctor actually patched up one who was close to death.

The next day they heard that the infantry was accelerating at the cost of a couple of companies. Interrogating prisoners they also found out that the infantry would be armed with rifles and possibly be bringing a cannon. They also surmised that they would be faced with around 50 additional men. This is a gross underestimate as they will find out.

That night they decided to go out hunting. The pickets had doubled up, but this led to the main cavalry camp being depleted. They decided to target that instead of the pickets. Molotov cocktails were meant to supplement a grenade launcher. The first hit by the launcher, however, killed 3 men, wounded a further 6, and led to immediate surrender. The next morning the remaining pickets had either disappeared or surrendered themselves.

That was the end of the session, with the PCs planning a pre-emotive raid on the advancing infantry in order to do something about the cannon. They will get a fright when they sneak up on a 400 strong infantry column.

There was no auto fire used!

End

Notes for next session

- need to work up an ambush location for the infantry, maps and disposition
- need some names and personalities for the ten villagers they have co-opted for their attack

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week four

Real life hiatus last week. Now back to the game.

Last time the PCs had gleaned from their captives that an infantry column was heading towards them with a cannon in tow. They had decided to get the drop on this column (which was 3 days away) by heading out with some horsemen to try to sabotage the cannon.

This they duly did, taking point on a hill near the likely camp spot for the column.

When the column arrived they could see it numbered 300 men with the cannon and a wagon of shells. The column made camp for the night and set up pickets.

The PCs spent a long time planning and decided on stealth. I allowed them a hidden difficult combat engineer roll to jury rig an explosive from a communicator and some grenades. I kept the result secret.

The two stealthiest PCs then headed down to the camp with a view to placing the bomb under the ammo cart. The third stayed on the hillside with grenade launcher and laser pistol as cover. He also had the trigger for the bomb.

The two intrepid souls made it on stealth rolls very close to the cart, but as one of them tried to get to the cart they were spotted. The one on the hill tried to distract with grenades, causing consternation in the camp. The bomb carrier ran for the cart but was shot in the head and stunned. His companion, the female doctor, got out her favoured bow and started to go all Katniss on the advancing guards. The grenadier ran for better position and shorter range.

As he fumbled to prime the bomb, the one under the cart was shot again in the leg, though he managed to take one guard out and set up the bomb. Then both saboteurs made a quick retreat under a hail of musket fire and out of range, calling for the bomb to be blown. The grenadier pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

The army camp was in full alert, soldiers were rushing to readiness. In desperation the grenadier fired, a formidable (1/2) skill roll. It was the last roll of the night. He missed but only deviated 5m forward. With a c9 b12 grenade I ruled he had totalled the nearby cannon and set off the low tech shells, resulting in a massive initial explosion and chains as well.

In the confusion the characters escaped and rode off into the night.

There are still about 300 angry infantrymen behind them. What will they do?

Ends

Notes

- for next week need to figure out way to catch PCs on the hop - perhaps redouble speed of infantry when not slowed by cannon, so arrive early.
- PCs seem to spend a lot of time planning. In general this is fine but it can slow down action. It felt a little slow tonight. Don't want to railroad though as all this planning drives their feeling of agency.
- Not 100% sure if grenades could blow up shells etc, but it worked really well as a story moment at the end of the evening
- for goodness sake remember my iPad next time!

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week five

Escaping the chaos caused last week, the PCs decided to continue to take the initiative. They moved further down the road and planted three bombs in the road to await the advancing column. Again, I made secret rolls for the building of the bombs (and for the guy checking construction as well).

The PCs managed to remain concealed as the infantry column advanced. They pinpointed where they thought the commanders were (they were on horseback), and set off the bombs, which they had planted at 50m intervals. This time all the mobs actually work. The regional governor was killed and so were many other. As the characters observed from afar, the infantry column halted, regrouped, and then retreated.

The village of Maiteen had been saved, for the time being.

Returning to Maiteen the characters met jubilation, and a dilemma. The villagers viewed them as Star Viking saviours. There were stories of Star Viking-inspired resistance in neighbouring villages. The village governor Mata was beginning to speak of taking the regional capital, Avorgna.

This momentum caused them a dilemma - keep on with the rebellion or move on to the capital and try to suss out the planetary dictator. There was disagreement amongst them as to what action fitted with their mission, and a further long discussion ensued. When talking to villagers, they all mentioned their faith in the Star Vikings

Eventually they decided to stay and March on Avorgna with the mustered forces of around 120 villagers, who had been mustering in the village, drawn by the stories of their rebellion. They also released some of their prisoners and asked them to persuade their fellow soldiers to desert.

The regional troops had returned to the Governer's stronghold in Avorgna, a brick built mansion with accompanying troop accommodation. As the rebels advanced on the city, they noted around 200 troops left in the area, and three cannon. The people of Avorgna had locked themselves in their houses and were not coming out.

The PCs joined Mata in seeking parley and were greeted by the new governor. They warned him to move out, but he ignored their calls. The characters offered two hours to leave. Within about thirty minutes the front gates opened and the army sallied forth to do battle ...

Notes

- Again, a long time by players discussing the next move. I asked them about this, worried they would find the game slow. They told me not to worry, they knew it was their fault!

- If you have read or run the adventure you will notice there as no climactic battle in Maiteen as the guerrilla attacks managed to disrupt the infantry. I did this for two reasons. Firstly as it seemed to make sense - the Governer had been killed and in less than twelve hours they had taken significant and unaccustomed losses from unseen enemies. Secondly as noted previously, I was concerned about repetition so I was not displeased to lose this battle from play.

- next week will mean a larger battle in a different town in an attempt to control the region and get control of more armaments. This will be hard to manage in role playing rules terms (at least to be manageable). I could break out striker 2 and try to relearn the rules (only played it once back in the day, using 40k epic minis) or look for inspiration elsewhere. I remember King Arthur Pendragon had rules for PCs in mass combat - if I have time I should see if I can get anything from those rules. Either way, I need to strike a balance so characters can affect the course of the battle whilst it is clear it is not all about them - and where they can feel sufficient peril.

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week six

So in the end I used Striker 2 with very old 40k epic minis (imperial guard) mounted on cardboard bases. We have a history of playing war games and have plenty scenery etc.

So the battle for Avorgna was fought between around 100 experienced troops and the PC s ( 80 with rifle muskets and 20 horsemen with javelins) versus 300 green troops and 3 cannon.

This worked pretty well with the cannon blowing bits out of the town and forcing the rebels to retreat their infantry. This drew out the Governer's forces. One battalion was pinned down by laser fire and then charged by the cavalry. After a couple of rounds they routed that group and carried on under heavy fire to attack the cannon and the third battalion defending the Governer's residence. The other battalion engaged in heavy fire in the middle of the town and was driven back and then broken.

The cannon and the third battalion broke at the same time as the cavalry, and the battle ended with many prisoners and deserters. The PCs captured the regional Governer and installed Mata as the new head of government. This will surely call down the wrath of the planetary Governer. The PCs seem a long way away from their mission now!

Notes

This session went much better than I feared testing out a new system. Striker 2 just felt like a logical abstraction of TNE rules. It wasn't too hard to make sense of.

It was also quick. Which helped.

It did, however, require a bit of prep in terms of making unit cards.

Morale is brutal, especially with green troops. They folded or were pinned very easily. But the way the rules work, even more experienced troops are in danger of a morale failure.

Player agency felt a little lessened, but as we had each character as a separate model that helped.

Next week is planning for the planetary Governer's attack and being offered a surprise route out of the planet.

I will need to consider striker 2 ing the planetary Governer's assault as well, though I don't have enough tiny minis. This was a low tech fight and seemed easier that way.

 

[Djct]

I do have one question on rules interpretation for striker 2 which I'll post in the war games thread

 

[Djct]

I was surprised to see Early Fallen has a relatively high position on the 'hottest titles' for traveller on the GDW link to DriveThruRPG.

I am not in any way claiming any glory (or royalties!) for this, but I would be genuinely interested to know if the play reports have piqued interest in the adventure. And if you have bought it, what do you think? Would you approach it in a different way?

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week seven

In the aftermath of the (First) Battle of Avorgna the characters are coming to terms with their victory. They stopped a few incidents of rebel retribution, using their position as fabled Star Vikings to threaten. Note the change since they first landed on planet!

In conference with Mata, the rebel leader, they laid out more of their plan than they had done - suggesting that they can create a trading partner for the planet and higher tech if they can overthrow the planetary leader, the Imperial Governer.

They also interrogated the captured regional governor, Aster, who had only become Governor a couple of days ago after the last one was caught in the explosive trap set by the characters. It became clear that the Imperial Governor would try to put down the rebellion. It is also clarified that tribute slaves go to the capital for some technical reason.


As they were preparing defences and planning a raid on the capital, out of the blue they were contacted by a starship in orbit. The Free Trader was eventually found to be friendly after some initial sensible precaution from the PCs - it could have been vampire or Guild after all. The PCs refused an evacuation, but took a small number of arms ( couple of assault rifles etc). The trader promised to get word back to the coalition as quickly as possible.

Next it became clear that army columns were advancing on them. In the front were cavalry under a white flag. It turned out that these were representing two planetary Governer's who wanted to make common cause. After negotiation they joined together and agreed that these troops would pretend to join the imperial Governer and then attack with treachery.

The PCs took the rebel army to the Allroy crossing on the river and dug in. A few days word came. The Governer's forces were coming, and the next battle was about to begin.

Notes

No miniatures this week!

Really thought the characters would evacuate with the starship, but they stayed which was good.

A lot happened and I shoehorned it in quickly. Not sure how this felt from a player perspective, but I telescoped a 6 week wait in the scenario to a few days wait ( for the imperial Governer to turn up). There were two reasons for this - firstly an inconsistency in the scenario as the RC ship was suppose to pick them up in about six weeks, secondly the opportunity for pondering in 6 weeks was too much at this stage.

Next week will be the Battle of Allroy Crossing. I won't play this with Striker 2 as there are some specific role playing outcomes required/scripted. But I will have to do a bit of work to flesh out some of the vignettes to make it exciting and credible for the characters. This may seem like railroading to some.

Again, a different experience for all. No combat and very little dice rolling, though perhaps could have done with some jeopardy for PCs.

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week eight

In contrast to last week, this week was all about die rolling as we fought out the first part of the Battle of Allroy Crossing.

The PCs had dug in at the river fords, which encompassed a 2km long section of the river between two villages. The vast bulk of their men were deployed in trenches above the ford, with smaller detachments, cannon and cavalry situated in each of the villages.

Word came from their new allies (who were supposed to be part of the enemy army) that the advance force would attack, but that their allies should not turn just yet, as they could do so more effectively when the main column came forward.

The enemy troops were cavalry and infantry supported by 3 tl5 armoured cars ('pathies' from the RCEG book). The cavalry advanced quickly through the ford, not realising a large force was on the other side. There was significant firing on the cavalry and subsequently the infantry as they tried to move across the river. The armoured cars kept heads down as they hosed the area with their machine guns.

The PCs played a valiant role in defending the flanks as the enemy fanatically pressed forward, with the final blow being the cavalry mown down in a volley fire from the trenches and the infantry being decimated by cannon and grenade launcher fire. After a bloody fight hand to hand in the two flanking villages for control of the cannons, the broken advance party eventually retreated in disarray.

The advance party were broken, but much more as to come.

Notes

- Worked ok with just a drawn map
- should have been clear about what weapons were being used and drawn together stats in advance as had to flick between multiple books
- next week is all about the main force and overwhelming odds - have to think through situations which warrant the turns of the story
- tried out auto fire again, same quirks but at least we know that now!

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week nine

After a real life break last week - we played a couple of games of the Mars Attacks miniatures game - we were back in action this week.

After repulsing the advance attack last time, the wait for the main attack from the Imperial Governer was tense. It took four days for the rest of the army to advance to the forward position. All the time the players were being given secret info by encrypted radio from the two Governers they had allied with. The characters utilised the time to build better defences and to put some traps around the ford as delaying tactics.

In addition, they had to quell some dissent in the ranks as some of their volunteers were worried that it had all gone too far. They took the time to walk amongst the troops and to reassure them.

Then the main attack happened.

Firstly an advance force of LMG and crunch gun troops were deployed to pick people off when the artillery fired. The Governer had a relic air/raft which was to be used for spotting artillery. However the characters managed to use their electronic kit to effectively jam the radio, so the initial artillery barrage was postponed for some time. Eventually the characters decided to unnamed the radio as the advance was being delayed and the trap they had cooked up with the traitor commanders would not be sprung.

The artillery made short work of the two villages at either end of the ford. The shelling went on all day, and at dawn the next morning the main advance started. The surviving armoured cars trundled down to the riverbank and set up withering LMG fire and the infantry appeared over the opposite bank, supported by cannon.

In the course of the action the characters rallied some of their overwhelmed troops, re-manned their surviving cannon with troops, and defended and evacuated the medical centre in the village. And blew up an advance party of cavalry with the most accurate grenade of the entire adventure so far.

We stopped for the evening as the infantry were just breaching the river and the trap with Generals Reese and Orander was just about to be sprung.

Notes

- enjoyed the little grace notes in the battle which the adventure provided. They added a bit of texture and objective to the battle.
- I think they are all enjoying this and hopefully they will want to play some more traveller - the emphasis on battles has been one thing, but there are lots of other things to show!

 

[Djct]

Play report

Week ten

The second phase of the Battle of Allroy Crossing.

The enemy had breached the river but a trap was about to be sprung. The rebels were about to be joined by elements of the Governer's army.

The first thing to do was to repel the advancing troops. I let the players roll for a sample of their troops to get an idea of their effectiveness. I then rolled for the enemy. I only counted hits both times as a proxy.

Then the PCs decided to charge down the hill in attempt to repel the enemy. On the far side The traitor Governer Reese's men started to attack the armoured cars on the other side of the river, with mixed results - destroying 1, capturing another whilst the third was turned on them.

This continued for several rounds as the PCs led detachments of men forward down sides of the battlefield (2 were on one side, the third on the other). But the onslaught kept coming with many numbers.

At the back, enemy cavalry had slipped through, but Reese's cavalry rode to intercept them.

In the midst of the melee, the PCs were cutting a swathe and making headway, but eventually the accumulation of wounds ( and this is TNE so they took a lot of damage) meant that they went to seriously wounded (2 of them) and were knocked to 0 initiative, or took a head hit that stunned.

I made them wake up back in their second trench, bloodied and with the news that their men had fought for several hours more, very bravely, but that as the evening fell it was clear that their force was broken and the worst was yet to come ...

Notes

- Players were disappointed their actions could not turn the battle, but that difficult when following the script

- Debated in my mind whether to use Striker 2 again. We could have telescoped 2 evenings into one, but player agency would have been reduced. In addition the outcome may not have followed script

- question - whether I can or should seek to wrap up the remainder of the adventure next week, and again whether to do it in striker 2