History

Around the turn of the century, the Retama Park in San Antonio, TX, was a successful horse racing track featuring top talent, pari-mutuel wagering and an elite polo team. The horses did not fair so well during the food shortages after the Grain Blight, however, and the park closed after the hungry hordes devoured it’s only reason for being. Unused and abandoned, during the late 2010s the former park briefly served as an occasional staging area for audacious Mexican bandit raids on the outskirts of San Antonio.

The park eventually re-opened as the Retama Duel Center in 2029 on the grounds of its former location. Featuring two duel arenas, a racetrack, combat football field, micro arcade and other amusements, investors had high hopes of returning a quick profit. Retama would eventually turn out to be only modestly successful. In early 2029 the new Center was promoting itself aggressively and staging many exciting events in order to gain traction in the blossoming autoduelling market.

The Retama Duel Center’s Polo Field (described in the Arena Book) would go on to host the Center’s signature poloduelling events. The duel described below occurred in the Center’s secondary venue-- the Retama Duel Center Mini-Slalom. [I obtained this map online a few years ago, and no longer remember from whence. I regret not being able to attribute credit accordingly. In its original form, I believe it was an unidentified arena. I simply put it to use at Retama.]

Scenario & Session Report

Last weekend a friend and I played a 3-on-3 team Amateur Night, each driving an Atlantic Pisces, a Tate Bombardier and a Fnord Hotshot. At values ranging from $8-15K, these were very nice autos for an arena to throw at an amateur event. In an attempt to boost ratings, management decided to expend the resources to field exciting, high damage vehicles, with good chances of dramatic action.

The Pisces is a midsize featuring dual front MGs, a heavy rocket right and left, and two more linked HRs back, with about armor 20 all around. The Bomb is an accel 10 luxury, featuring an anti-tank gun front and about armor 20 all around. The Hotshot is a lux, featuring twin MGs front, flamethrowers left and right, and two more linked FTs to the rear, with about 20 armor front and back, but only ten on the sides. With this much firepower and modest armor, the audience was assured of some blazing action.

My team is on the left, my opponent's on the right. My counters depict the actual vehicle, from left to right-- Pisces, Bomb, Hotshot. He used Applause, Morningstar & Hotshot counters to represent the Pisces, Bomb & Hotshot.

We did not use the arena as a slalom. This was simply a conventional duel. Each team entered from one side of the board from three central gates. Which car entered from which gate was determined randomly. All vehicles entered at 40mph.

My team entered from the west, his from the east. From north to south, we started out with my Pisces facing his Hotshot, his Bomb facing my Bomb in the center, and my Hotshot facing his Pisces. The tight quarters and narrow arena width made for asymmetrical play, despite the relatively symmetrical entry.

We are using ongoing chracters, whose history, skills and salvage we track. My Pisces was driven by Cintre Phunagi, his by "President" Frankenstien. My Bomb's driver & gunner were Orange Rodnance & Catalina Jones; his were Ricky Bobby & "Snake" Plisken. My Hotshot was driven by Pastor Molester Halifax, his by Vin Diesel. Evidently, his characters' parents had a thing for late 20th century action vids.

Out of the gate, both Bombs turned north, creating two different zones of play a Pisces/Hotshot duel in the south and the other four below. My opponent’s Bomb and Pisces focused their fire on my Hotshot, while my two cars focused on his Pisces.

He had the better of this initial pass, and in short order my Hotshot’s right side was penetrated by his Bomb’s ATG which did considerable damage to the power plant and caused a fire. His Pisces then knocked out my Hotshot driver. At the end of the turn, the Hotshot’s fire extinguisher system failed to put out the fire and the Hotshot exploded. The Hotshot coasted gently to the wall with the Pastor cremated inside.

To the north, after exchanging some shots his Hotshot turned south and my Pisces lined up behind him. A duel flamethrower blast to the front was harrowing but caused no fire. My driver saw an opportunity to take the Hotshot out through its weak side armor and tried to line up a rear rocket salvo after softening him up with the MG. At higher speeds, I passed his car and connected with both rockets. All damage went to his power plant and brought it down to 1DP, but failed to start a fire. My position also forced him to take a ninety degree turn or hit the wall. He made the turn, failed a control roll but the consequences were negligible and he recovered fine. My Pisces came away from that pass pretty beaten up and with nothing to show for it. His Hotshot was able to hide his penetrated side for the rest of the match.

My Pisces whittle down his side, taking some punishment from his Hotshot.

I blast him with the rear heavy rockets and try to force him into the wall... all to no avail.

Back in the south, after exchanging more high damage shots and taking steep turns to keep weapons in firing arc, his Bomb and Pisces were in handling trouble. They both went into skids, giving my Bomb a reprieve from their combined fire while he circled around face them with his ATG. I got a free shot at his Bomb’s side and nearly penetrated. The Bombs then squared off. His pivoted to hide his damaged side and I drove straight at him. After an exchange of ATG fire his front armor was hurt worse then mine so I rammed him at a combined speed of about 40mph. Once again, I damaged his power plant but not enough to immobilize or cause a fire. Worse my ATG was destroyed so I had no way to finish the kill. My Bomb spent the next couple turns simply pushing him into the wall while taking potshots from his Hotshot.

In the final bit of action, my Pisces entered the south half of the arena and tried to take advantage of his cars poor positions and handling situations. It was all for naught and the combined fire from his Pisces joined shortly by his Hotshot cause my driver to skid and get into a tough position behind a bunker. They trapped him in there, and his Hotshot t-boned my Pisces for the kill.

My Pisces boxed-in in the east, his Bomb on the right and Hotshot just having rammed it on the left. To the west, my bomb disengages from his, having innefecutally pushed him into the corner.

His team then called for my Bomb’s surrender, which my driver accepted. With a penetrated front and no weapon, my Bomb had little chance of scoring a non-suicidal kill and not enough time to run out the clock.

Our final dispositions when we called the game. He has scored two kills and one surrender. I nearly scored two kills, which is to say I scored zero.

The entire duel took about ten turns in game time, and about two hours to play out.

Sorry for the loss, but a nice write-up.

That pass with the Pisces was perfectly executed. I'm amazed that the dice could go against you so many times in a single game. The odds of that are just so crazy!

Oh... and I'm not sure that a vehicle's crew can survive an explosion. The Compendium states that the occupants are killed immediately. Maybe you have a saving throw house rule for this situation...?

In the course of the game I had multiple 3D connections with HRs and ATG, but seldom did above 8 damage with them.

Somewhere in the Compendium it states that in an explosion every occupant and component takes 2D damage. I don't recall it saying that everyone dies. In this case, the driver took 7 hits. Since he received immediate medical care, there was a saving throw vs. death (roll the amount of damage or higher on a 3D6 to survive; one week in the hospital for each point of damage, minus one week for each number rolled above the target number). He rolled a 17, so I figured the medics just did a miraculous job on him.

Right you are-- explosion = death. I don't know where I got that 2D jazz. That's a shame, I liked the Pastor. He's the one who knocked out your Killer Kart, set it on fire, and then dragged your driver to safety. Should have had some good karma built up. Such is the rough and tumble world of CW.

And for those who like to follow aftermath, salvage was awarded thus:

Frankenstien kept the Pisces he drove, and needs only repair a lot of armor and maybe replace some tires. He did not earn the kill on my Hotshot because even though his hsot that disabled the driver occurred prior to the power plant explosion, from a spectator's point of view, it was the Bomb that wore through the armor and caused the vehicle's demise.

Vin Diesel kept the Hotshot he drove with the crippled plant and salvaged a pretty damaged Pisces (MGs are intact though).

With Ricky Bobby and Pliskin both in the Bomb, it was decided that Ricky keep the Bomb they were driving, and Pliskin would salvage their Hotshot kill. This made bookkeeping much easier, and both vehicles were comperably torn up. With the Hotshot unsalvagable due to the explosion, they'll have to share the Bomb.

Since my Bomb surrendered to them as a team, the arena bought it back for half of it's (retail value minus repairs). This came to $2600, so each participant received $650.

You always have the best backstories!!!! I also like the names of the drivers.

Interesting selection of cars to duel with. I'm loving the writups, keep em coming.

Technically, the referee ruling on site should outweigh some random commenter on the internets....

But... at least he joins Yahoo McScandles in our 2029 hall of fame.

Rodney Fischer owed a blood debt to Halifax. While watching the duel at an area Truck Stop, he is reported had strong words regarding Snake and Ricky Bobby. I'm not sure what will happen if he is ever pitted against either of those drivers....