...and I feel fine! (Commentary on recent games of "This is Not a Test")

Just short of two years ago, I wrote about a miniatures game called This is Not a Test, published by World's End Publishing.  Back then, I had just been introduced to the game and had intended to join up with a few locals who were running a fairly informal campaign.  Unfortunately, that did not happen, as I lost contact with those players and have not seen them again since.  This put pretty much all efforts on hold for a while, as I focused time and effort elsewhere.  I did, however, pick up the printed revised edition last year that emerged from the successful Kickstarter back in 2016, in the event something came up again.

Demo Day:  The Reawakening

Last January I was fortunate enough to make it up to a games store about two hours north which hosted a fairly regular TNT game group for a Demo Day.  Warbands were provided and everything, so joining in was no issue.  I played a small Tribal warband lead by Slash Tall Hat and played two back-to-back skirmishes to learn the rules of the game.  This went rather well, and in spite of not having actually read the rules in quite some months, I picked up proper play in short order.  I even managed to win one of the games!  Unfortunately, all the photos I took of the event got lost away somewhere, so I cannot share.

Suffice to say, this rebooted my interest in the game, so I decided to join in on a campaign they were looking to start up relatively soon - very fortunately hosted on Saturdays (vs. their more ordinary Thursdays, which isn't something I could commit to).  This was short notice to me, so I did not have much time to prep anything for it.  Fortunately, I managed to find the Samurai miniatures I had started to build for the now-abandoned local campaign - they just needed some paint.  So, Samurai-themed Tribals it is, then!

(Caesar's Legion can eat its heart out)

Pre-Campaign Brawl

In early February, the campaign members assembled to duke it out in a free-for-all scenario that represents a fragmenting of a short-lived order that kept peace between our individual warbands.  Basically, we started with our leaders and champion in a big circle on the table and went for Last Man Standing, just for the kicks - while you got to keep the after-game rewards, nothing permanent was to happen with your troops.  I came rather close to winning this one, surprisingly, but a series of awful rolls in melee right at the very end sealed my fate.  Managed to walk away with 62 Barter Script (the game's currency), though!

Sadly none of my photos exist anymore - not sure exactly what happened to them.  Someone else at the games did get a few shots, however, and I feel the need to share this particularly interesting terrain piece:

This rather excellently done crashed plane was done up on commission for the game's author and host / manager of our campaign.  I remember seeing some WIP threads over on Reddit's r/terrainbuilding but I cannot for the life of me find it anymore.  The aircraft apparently started out as one of those GI Joe type knockoff toys, which was chopped up and painted the way you see here.  They also went in and installed seats and suchlike internally to give it greater presence.  The forward section and the area around it was the real center of attention for the latter part of the game, as it offered good cover and decent vantage points.

Those are my two guys for the scenario purched atop the craft in photo #1 - that was late game, and represented my guys working through the inside of the piece - there was probably enough room to get my hand inside, but I didn't want to mess with it at the time.  My final stand was actually over on the far end, under the wing touching the ground.  At least we died in the shade!

The Campaign Begins

On 24 February, I turned up for the first official meet for the campaign.  I ended up playing in two games back-to-back against two different opponents (but on the same board for each game).  If you want to get a snapshot as to what the band looked like at the beginning, see this spreadsheet.  Keep in mind that I had not fully settled on names when this took off, so those will be different in whatever current version of the sheet I'm working from (not that one - that one is static).  Also, "Blunderbuss" was my stand-in for musket, since that version of the calculator sheet did not have musket - and I did not properly price-adjust in response.

Game 1

Game 1 used the "Little Slice of Heaven" scenario, which featured my 10-man Tribal warband attempting to defend a building against incoming hostiles - four heavily equipped "Preserver" types carrying considerable firepower - including a light machine gun.  They even brought a medic bot!

Warband group photos:

"The Dead K"

Opposition forces

Believe it or not, my ten-man-band was actually valued at a few less BS than his four man team - campaign started at 400BS (which is what he had) and I was only at 392.

I deployed my limited ranged weaponry - two muskets, two bows - atop the central building, and concentrated my melee troops on the bottom floor.  The objective was to survive 8 turns, but also have the higher Victory Point score at the end of the scenario.  Scenario rules provided extra VP per figure for being in the central sandbag area, and double that for being inside the building, so it was important I not let them breach my hideout!

Initial disposition was as follows:

That white trailer was my sole contribution to the terrain setup - the machine gunner is on the left here

Without bogging the piece with a blow-by-blow, suffice to say I lost this one.  It went well at first - one of my musketeers even took down their machine gunner in only turn 2 or 3.  Lots of fire exchange cost me an archer, and my opponent attempted to make a move to get into the courtyard and out of my line of fire (defilades are a harsh mistress).  In response, I committed a critical error of judgment - forgetting we were already on Turn 5 of 8, I opted to sally out and push back the invaders with cold weapons.  This initially went well, and I killed a second member of their band (a rather lightly equipped shotgunner).  Unfortunately, the Medic Bot which had advanced with him was a rather tough nut, and put up a credible defense.  It did not successfully drop anyone, I believe, but it wouldn't die, either.  Once I'd downed their Wastelander with the shotgun, they were forced to take a morale check - check failure was only this that got the medic bot away from me enough for me to free one of my spearman.

Their warband leader - a plasma gun and heavily armored individual - did not close with the other two, and put down some punishing fire that sent my Champion and another spearman out of action before they could even close with the Medic Bot (as I recall) - an issue because my Champion was bringing the heavy-hitting melee.  To make matters worse, the Medic Bot - free of melee - was able to tend to the fallen Wastelander, bringing him back to fighting strength enough to actually get a shot off - and drop another spearman.  I attempted to fall back inside the building - where, honestly, I should have stayed the whole time - but another man was dropped in the process, triggering morale for everyone.  Two models fled  the board completely (rolled a 1), while the rest only fell back a bit.

Ultimately, it was end-of-turns that decided the game, wherein I staged a final effort to at least drop their leadership.  This was not to be - I landed a wound with my leader's sword, but not enough to take him out of action.  Result was a VP total well in his favor, and an exciting learning experience for me.

GANBATTE!

After action rounds got me 94 Barter Scrip, all told, between scenario and draw rewards.  Fortune was on my side and, of the five or six people downed, only one Permanent injury emerged - brain trauma set to cause "Flashbacks" for the brave warrior now known as Thrusting Spear (Oshitsubusu Yari, formally, of course).  I even managed to roll well on the Relics check - netting me a Sporadic Rare (which I cashed in for the 15BS "Chainblade"), and was lucky enough to pass a Sawbones visit to cure Thrusting Spear of his Flashbacks before the next game - hypnosis, I guess.  A few other members of my warband got Banged Up, taking some -1 penalties on attack rolls next game they play in.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable game, even if I got silly for a minute and basically threw away odds stacked well in my favor.  I even had a plan and everything, but suffered a Momentary Lapse of Reason.  Such is life - was fun anyways.  On the upside, that out-of-action machine gunner my opponent brought now has to deal with Frenzy mental disadvantages until he gets a lucky Sawbones roll (5BS/visit, with the risk of making things worse) or dies.

Here is what post-game scavenging resolution looks like, by-the-by:

Cash monies!

At end of game, up to 4 non-leader surviving members can go out into the wastes to explore and scavenge.  For each one, you draw a card from your opponent's deck, then resolve them - and each drawn card goes into its own separate pile for the duration of the campaign, so they cannot be drawn again - that above 8♦, 7♥, 4♥, and 9♥ cannot be drawn again from my opponents deck.  Every single numbered card resolves the same way:  Take its value, multiply it by 3, and get that much in Barter Scrip - this is basically just random tradable scrap of such mundanity as to be below mention - I got 84 here.  Face cards, however, represent Special Encounters, which references entries in the book - you either choose to engage in a potentially hazardous Special Encounter, or take a lesser valued, no-risk trade-off of some kind (usually XP or BS).  I actually drew one of those on Game 2; speaking of which...

Game 2

Not long after we resolved Game 1, another player showed up to the venue looking to play.  Being the only one able to stay long enough, I took up the dice again and set out to defeat his "Settlers" type Warband in a "Cold Vengeance" scenario.

"Cold Vengeance" is a pretty simple scenario - a stand-up fight wherein you have 8 rounds to slay and survive.  We opted to use the same board as before, which in my mind represents my Warband attempting to resettle their previously abandoned territory.  He who fires the first shot in "Cold Vengence" takes a -2 VP penalty for reasons of scenario rules.  This scenario also had a randomly rolled confounder - random encounters of Giant Ticks scattered hidden around the board, and actually operated by a 3rd party - my previous opponent!  Giant Ticks are not particularly dangerous opponents - indeed, they don't even do real damage when they successfully attack, just reduce the victim's Defense stat for the duration of the game.  They are, however, competent melee fighters and somewhat tough - basically mini tar pits.  Fortunately my soldiery moves faster than they do, and I had only small amounts of trouble with them.

Unfortunately I did not get a shot of his entire warband.  "Settlers" are a new warband from the recently released expansion "Wasteland Companion", so I was not very familiar with them.  Turns out there's a chance to immediately replace their first (and only their first) casualty bearing the "Replaceable" trait with a follower of the same type - this did actually come into play!  Unfortunately their stats are generally somewhat poor and a lot of them are "Soft Bellied" - which makes their out-of-action Survival rolls take a -2 penalty, which trends them towards death in post-game resolution for the wounded.  This warband brought more firearms and ranged power than I did - including a Laser Carbine relic (!).

Initial disposition from my perspective was like this:

The little red boxes represent potential Giant Ticks

Basically, I broke left and stayed as a group.  He had split his force slightly, and attempted to pincer around the building still dominating the center.  This ended up working against him, as it was too long into the game before those forces on the right-hand-side of the above picture were able to close in, and even then they had rather limited success in actually hitting anyone - being continually forced to move and shoot at best, it stacked the odds in my favor.  I got Supremely Lucky in that the Laser Carbine Malfunctioned right on the very first shot it tried to take - that janky wasteland tech just isn't up to spec!  See, swords and spears never jam or run out of ammo...

While the game saw much more hand combat than the previous, I was not able to make great use of my Totally Clever Strat™ of a mass charge backed by my leader's All Together ability - though I was able to invoke it a few times to maintain a cohesive group on the advance with relative ease (not strictly necessary, but I was trying to habituate myself to using it).

Anyways, we both had some early slowdowns with the Giant Ticks, but were eventually largely able to move past them; I killed one and had an archer judo throw another away towards the end of the game - my opponent was, however, forced to fire on one of the Giant Ticks, so took the VP penalty.  Some fire was traded along the left side, and I managed to really bring the hate against one particularly Unfortunate "Militiaman" type character - dropping a bowshot and two musketballs into him before we even resolved damage.  This was also, coincidentally, how I witnessed the "Replaceable" special rule worked.

I attempted to hook around the trailer and engage a few of his models in hand towards the later stages of the game (we had several turns of maneuver warfare going on without much blood drawn).  This kind of worked.  After killing and moving past a Giant Tick in the crater (camouflaged mini - I'd forgotten he was there!) and losing one spearman to rifle fire and having another suppressed for two or three turns, I was able to execute this tactic and start to close in on his more vulnerable troopers.

Some shots are being traded here while my Champion pulls security

Problem.  Turns out he did have a response to my attack, in the form of the Mysterious Stranger - a one-per-warband type member that has a random secret past that you roll upon hire.  This one got Former Raider Champion (or something to that effect) which granted Hard as Nails and Bully - bad news for my boys on the offensive!

I probably should have taken the model armed with only a single Light Weapon as a more credible threat than I did (even without knowing his Background), and moved around him.  Naturally I just ran straight in, spears at the ready, to try and do him quick-like.  Turns out he's good at combat - the one blow I did land was negated by Tough as Nails, and his Bully ability let success in hand-to-hand knock my models prone - which wastes AP to recover from (and I only get up to two at best!).

The man in the hat is our "Mysterious Stranger"

That fight did not go well, and I unfortunately let my leader and champion lag too far behind to render much help.  I lost one spearman to the melee by the hand of the Mysterious Stranger, while another ended up getting shot when I chose to shove the Stranger back - my intent had been to reform my group around my leader for extra combat support, but I neglected to remember that the nearby Militiaman hadn't yet activated - so he gunned my man down.  The surviving spearman managed to fall back a bit, taking cover but sticking close enough to be of some use when the Champion and Leader made their way to the fore.  As soon as they arrived (and this spearman's turn came up) he was able to strike hard and fast at those behind the Mysterious Stranger, and he dropped the offending Militiaman before moving on to engage his archer (who also fell to the spear).  Meanwhile, a melee developed between my leader and the Mysterious Stranger, who was joined by the hooker red-jacketed model (I believe a Settler - armed only with a Small Blade, regardless).  Here - finally - I got to press home my deadly advantage - the skill Against All Odds.

This skill, taken on my leader, swaps around how outnumbering works in TNT.  Ordinarily, a melee combatant gets a +1 bonus for each friendly in combat that you outnumber the target by.  As this was a 2-on-1, it typically would be a simple +1 bonus to the Stranger when he attacked, and the same to the lady of the night other model when it was their turn.  Against All Odds reverses this, however - the bonus goes to my leader instead!

Again, this ended up being something of a tar pit, and turns ran short in the game so the melee was unable to come to a real conclusion.  It did not help that my leader's relic - the "Chainblade" (totes kosher to the Shinbushido, promise) broke down on the second attempted use.  I believe I got a wound on the Stranger with it (but it wasn't enough to drop him) and there wasn't an opportunity to remediate the issue.

Moving right along...

2-on-1 the right way!

At the game's end, though, it turns out I won - though he took half my warband out of action (I did take a morale check, which only failed on my Champion - keeping him out of combat), I ended up with a net higher number of Victory Points.  By the end, I had taken three of his models out-of-action - including the guy who replaced the first one I took out.  These characters both died in the after-game resolution phase, costing him all of their equipment (and, combined with mediocre scavenging draws, represented a net loss of wealth in this battle - wastelands be harsh like that).  I also managed to kill one of those Giant Ticks over the course of the engagement, which was worth a little XP (though no  VP).  I took more photos of the first two games; you can find them here if you're interested.  Overall great experience, and I had another good opponent.

The Post-Game Gods® were kind to me.  I did lose one warband member completely - Running Spear - which cost me all of their XP and equipment.  Two of my wounded were fortunate enough to resolve with a Lucky Break - netting them no injuries and actually granting them an extra XP for their trouble.  The other two were merely "Banged Up", which may be an issue in the next game (I was fortunate in that this game, none of the previously Banged Up individuals suffered much for it).  I got alright draws on scavenge, as well - only 33BS worth of scrap, but I drew a J♥ - my first Event card.

A "Jack of Hearts" event involves a lone wasteland sniper that takes a shot at the the scavenger who pulls this face card (my Champion, in this case).  The scavenger has two options:  Either ignore the encounter (taking cover and running off) for +2XP or attempting to engage the sniper.  To engage, you take an Agility-based Mettle test.  If you pass, you close with and destroy the sniper and gain their sniper rifle and d6 units of "Liquid Bravery" (an equipment item that, when consumed before battle, lets you reroll Morale or Grazed tests).  If you fail, you take a Strength 7 hit from said sniper rifle and resolve as any other ranged attack.

I passed this test and got my items (d6 -> 4 units of Liquid Bravery).  The sniper rifle will get sold - chuck that up to destroying it and selling it for scrap (my own Needlessly Elaborate Fluff© indicates these guys hoard and destroy war-tech that doesn't fit their ideological vision), or perhaps selling it up the chain to be destroyed.  Either way, scrips!

What the board looked like from the other side

Future Games in This Campaign

Now that I've had a chance to get to it, I'm in a position to start spending scrips and XP to improve my army for the next game, which is probably 10 March.  I've replaced my fatality - Running Spear  with a fresh new face called Sprinting Spear (the upside to uniformity in your rank & file is being able to reuse models without having even a wink and a nod at it); that ran a bit pricey, at 30BS between the individual and his equipment.  Upkeep, with the relic and everyone, now runs 14BS per game.  I will be using this spreadsheet to track my "current" warband - for the time being, anyways.  I may end up moving on to another roster builder at some point, and in any event will need to abandon that specific chart anyways once I start making use of expansion material.  I'll do what I can to remember to update the link...

I've given the Large Caliber Upgrade to my musketeers' weapons, so as to let them hit a little harder in the next skirmish - I'll need every bit of power I can wring out of those things before long, I suspect.  I've also issued "small blades" - knives - to all of my ranged combatants.  I had initially planned to keep my spearmen close by my ranged characters and didn't expect they'd need much more than their base hand-to-hand ability (push away the enemy on a successful Melee roll and fall back being the tactic I had in mind) but in practice this may not always be realistic.

As of yet I haven't rolled off on what the XP I'm spending gets me.  This ranges between skill and attribute gains, basically, with the 10% chance of being promoted to a higher character tier or (on the same result) picking whatever outcome you wish.

Eventually, I'll be looking at growing the band a bit.  I've looked at a few thematic avenues of approach on this, and there's a few I can pick from.  Simply adding more very basic troops is an easy one, alternating between hand and ranged weapons.  This increases my tolerance for casualties before morale kicks in, lets me outnumber more reliably, cover the board better, and just fight more in general.  Adding more elites or specialists opens up better damage potentials - especially as I'm thinking to rationalize a "Grenade Launcher" as an implementation of the bo-hyia - this would also extend my warband's range a bit, as currently we can only reach out to 20" (and only with the bows - muskets cut off at 18") and the launcher goes out to 24".  Ninja - an implementation of  the"Tribal Scout" character type - would be both Fluffy and Cool, though the Tribal Scout doesn't have all that great looking on-board combat capability for their price.  Lastly, if I wanted to go the Wyrd route, I could employ a magical girl psychic-power-using "Lesser Shaman".

I have not yet decided.  I might even "cheat" the theme a bit and hire a Hired Gun of some sort...not sure just yet!  I have only a little over 100BS in the vault right now, and I'm definitely wanting to keep a comfortable barrier in case the next game goes pear-shaped.

And regardless, I need to actually finish painting those figures...they're awfully flat looking right now!

I do not have any illusions that this warband - more to it, its theme - will be a long-term viable group.  Tribals are a little behind the power curve to begin with (though we get good melee), and I'm hampering that further by avoiding the use of modern tech...though I did leave myself a small out even in my own fluff for *maybe* using some of it - particularly the melee stuff.  When I first conceived the idea, it was Just For Fun, and reflective of the local players - all two of them.  Then they started to reflect a "local meta" of my own making, as I was putting together no less than three warbands at once in order to start some games locally - these Tribals (primitive, melee oriented, high model count), a Preserver band (high-tech, ranged oriented, very low model count), and a Raider group (whatever, mixed melee and short-ranged guns, high model count).  How far I can take these guys is anyone's guess but I'm not exactly broken up over the idea that I may be bottom-fragging it after a while.  We will see, however!

Thoughts on TNT and Future Campaigns

Now that I've actually gotten to play it, I can say I find the game rather enjoyable.  It has improved in its "second" edition, and the recent expansions have been pretty solid.  There's a few grey areas still - mostly play options that I don't think anyone has really used much - but the writer is pretty responsive and easily approached so those get cleared up pretty readily.  There is more content coming - vehicles are apparently the focus of the next supplement.

I am willing to play in future campaigns after this one winds down (if one is hosted) and I may even start up one local to me in order to spread the game's popularity.  With the supplements out now, I'm not entirely sure what I'd run next, as I'm considering a few ideas.  I may take a high tech, low model count approach next time - I've recently been taken by the idea of "Pemcy's Private Military Company" - one of the more tech-friendly (probably Peacekeeper) bands played up under the theme of mercs for hire.  "No job Too Small, no pay Too Large!©®™"

But, we'll see.

This isn't relevant to anything, but it is pretty cool looking

Considering TNT?

I can say I found TNT enjoyable enough to confidently recommend to anyone interested in wargames.  The demo rules are available for free here at their webstore, so if you've got a handful of minis or some flats laying about you can give it a try on the quick.  The Webstore itself has a pretty comprehensive product line - actually fairly impressive given the size of the operation, I think.  The full core rules are currently going for all of $20, which is certainly worth the money.  I have the printed hardback (which reminds me, I need to get the updated copy of the rules in digital...), which is nice, though not strictly necessary.  The recent Wasteland Companion expansion is also worth the buy at $12 - at just over 100 pages, it has great value for the money.  The figs are pretty good, too!

And if you're not looking for a post-apoc game per se, I've seen mention of other players taking the rules to power other settings, such as Fantasy skirmish battles, modern warfare, or even sci fi like Stargate SG-1 (which I'd be all over, let me tell you).

The community - centered on the Facebook group - is pretty active and creative - more than a few good miniature painters on there, for sure.  Feel free to drop by if you're interested in the game!

There also seems to be a "Let's Play" type log over at Guerrilla Game's YouTube channel, if you want to see it in action.

Closing

That is substantially more than I really needed to say, but with any luck it will be interesting to at least one reader here.  There's some overlap between Wargaming and Roleplay Gaming present in this game (which may interest my regulars), though it is shifted more in the direction of the former than the latter.  I like it, so I felt to share it, and it isn't often I post non-GURPS related stuff here as late.  I would not expect this campaign to change the direction of my blog or anything - I suspect interest among my readers in following my campaign is a number approaching 0, but I may make the occasional reference to it if something is particularly interesting on that front.  I'm uncertain I'd get much mileage out of documenting the campaign much on here.

That said, reading into the game's extant lore has made me think about other things to do with the setting, and I'm mulling over the idea of running an RPG set in it sometime, perhaps powered by d20 Apocalypse...

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!