Atomic Highway First Playtest

 I finally had a bit of free time last night to do a bit of gaming.  I've been reading the Atomic Highway rules; I've made up a few characters and vehicles so it was time to give the rules a test spin.  For this playtest session I kept things simple.  One character, Sgt. Green armed with machete and shotgun wearing light armor vs. 5 Savage Cannibals armed with spears and knives with no armor...

  Sgt. Green a young sentinel upon hearing of a recent cannie raid on an outlying 'Stead set out to investigate.  The savages had killed an entire family and had kidnapped a young girl. 
Sgt. Green tracked the savages down to the ruins of a town, he spent some time observing the ruins from a nearby rock.

 

He was able to determine the band was made up of five members and the girl was apparently being kept in a ruined theater in the heart of town.  (Made some great Notice rolls)

Waiting until dusk, Sgt. Green attempted to sneak into the lightly guarded edge of town, thinking he could take out some of the savages before they were aware of his presence.

Sgt. Green's inexperience has caused him to make a bad decision, the savages all spot him with ease, he might as well have announced his presence with a bull horn. (The Tribals had great Notice skill and Green rolled terribly, or maybe it was the noisy mutant taun taun in the distance lol), The Savages let out a war cry and attack!

The nearest savage charges him and is blown to smithereens by Sgt. Green's shotgun. (I rolled several successes on this one, nasty damage!!)

Combat ensues the rest of the Savages quickly move up and engage Sgt. Green in Mortal Combat! Two more Savages fall, Sgt. Green skillfully dodges their thrown spears.

What's this? The young girl has been left unguarded! and has apparently gotten loose from her bindings!

More brutal combat!! Down to the last two Savages, Green makes a gamble killing the wounded savage to get him out of the fight, but one savage is left unhurt, and now Green is VERY injured!

Sgt. Green spies the young girl fleeing in the distance!  Whatever the outcome of this fight, he has saved the girl!!

Green fought bravely, but he is slain by the last Savage.  His inexperience and overconfidence was his undoing!

Comments...
This game can be brutal if you don't think and plan your tactics, my first mistake was thinking I could sneak up on a group of tribals, every darn one of them noticed me in a big way and combat ensued, No sneaking, no cover just full out mayhem. I did well initially...having the only firearm made a big difference, with my high shooting skill the shotgun was sweet, but after easily taking out two savages the third got a spear in me, I couldn't dodge this one, then things got rough, they were all over me, I injured another one, and only the use of a fortune point (taking away one of the savages successes) kept me from a skewering death from a spear, then it was all about dodging and shooting, I made some more tactical mistakes at this point, I wasted my remaining fortune points (These are kinda like Fate Points/Action Points/Hero Points etc.) trying to shoot and stab with my machete, I sucked with the machete so those points would have been better spent elsewhere, then when down to me and the last two savages I opted to shoot the injured one, which killed him BUT that left me vs. a healthy savage, I was now pretty hurt, only my armor kept me up but the penalties for being so injured were adding up, a couple more rounds of intense combat ensued, me bloody trying to take down the last savage, I hurt him but in the end he butchered me with his spear...*whew* what a fight! Cool game! Combat is very cinematic compared to other games I have played, and firearms are freakin' brutal especially when you get to reroll natural "6"'s until you don't get anymore "6"'s I made one savage utter paste with some great rolls.  There are optional rules which I could have used that would have made the savages more like minions/cannon fodder but I wanted to go with a harder fight.
-Good Gaming!  Bill