-ROCKETMAN III-

Last night we played the concluding chapter of -ROCKETMAN III- with Rocketman and his allies launching the last stage of their assault on Korsakov's secret base. This game was planned for a fortnight ago, but we had to bump it back due to real life interference. The game itself was another chaos of smoke and mayhem, with more rules adjustments interupting the ebb and flow of the game but not to the point of utter distraction.

Rocketman and his friends had to meet two of three objectives to win the game. They had to free Audrey Summers and Professor Khalnikov from the detention centre (the wooden buildings), kill Korsakov and/or destroy the death ray tower.

Player One
Rocketman
George McArthur
’Mad Dog’ Mitchell
Lady Carfax.
Lady Carfax’s driver: Meadows
1 armoured car with HMG
(Player 1 had lost his other vehicles in the previous game)

Player Two
The Colonel
Sgt Sternov.
10 x Kazakhstani Bolshevik soldiers (with HMG)
1 truck
1 armoured car with HMG
1 off table mortar + crew

Player Three
Korsakov
Yuri
10 x Iron Guard riflemen
2 x Iron guard machine gunner
1 Light tank with 37mm gun

Player Four
Olga
10 x Kazakh tribesmen.
1 supply truck
1 (damaged) Heavy tank with multiple weapons.

As usual I was player four. This time I had the heavy tank, but it was a precondition of the game that the tank was damaged and had to be repaired before it could move. In order for this to happen, I had to roll a six when it was my turn to move. Typically I never did and my heavy tank remained static in front of the tank workshops through out the entire game.

Rocketman and his closest friends started on the western (far left) edge of the table. The idea was this game took place directly to the east of the previous game, See image, and so Rocketman and his immediete friends began in the shelter of the first tank workshop whilst the Colonel and his men crossed the open ground under the cover of their vehicles towards the detention centre.
This meant that Rocketman began the game very close to the heavy tank and was quickly suppressed by it. I had placed my entire force around the tank and in the surrounidng tank workshops in the hopes of vigorously defending it and sure enough, within a handfull of rounds, Rocketman, the Hero of the Game, had been knocked out as he attempted to attack the heavy tank.

In the meanwhile, The Colonal and his troops made a concerted push towards the detention centre, pouring fire into the guard house door and taking chance pot shots at the Khazakstani tribesmen as they passed by. Korsakov was lurking and Yuri was powering up the death ray. The first half of the game passed by with a lot of grenades being tossed and machine gun fire rattling back and forth as the attackers tried to destroy the death rays manual control platform. Yuri, cunningly switched hats with one of his men so he could not be identified as an officer and this ploy worked wonders since he managed to survive. Unable to disable the death ray, The Colonel and his men assaulted the detention centre guard house, with both armoured cars providing covering fire. They tossed in grenades and entered, litte suspecting they were entering a trap. Korsakov's men were waiting in the courtyard for them to enter the building where upon they would throw in their own grenades. This happened, but fortune held in the Colonel's favour for a short while longer and only one bolshevik soldier was killed.

The death ray became fully operational in round 9 but Yuri held his fire until the last possible moment hoping to sight the distant mortar. Since he failed at this he fired upon the detention centre guard house instead, vaporising half of the building, seriously wounding the Colonel and killing all others within the blast radius. This meant that both of the good guys had lost their commanders, whilst both of the bad guy still had theirs.

The game was far from over however. The loss of a command element only means one's ability to move is impeded (the d6 for movement becomes a d3) In round 10, the mortar opened fire from its new position and this imedietly suppressed Yuri on the death ray's control platform. The light tank (under Korsakov's command) had been lurking behind the detention centre and now came forward to challenge the remaining truck full of bolshevik good guys which was trying to approach the tower. These two vehicles engaged in a close quarters scrum which saw the truck being rammed and a satchel charge going off. The tank won the struggle (miraculously surviving the satchel charge) but the wall of the detention centre was blown in.

On the far side of the field, Mitchell was attempting to place the remaining satchell charge on the heavy tank, but was unable to due to the many Khazakstani's cluttered about it. He snuck up between the two tank workshops and got into a fist fight with one Khazakstani, only to then be confronted by a high kicking Olga. As the game reached its conclusion (we ran out of time) Mitchell knocked Olga out cold (thus depriving me of my command element).

The bad guys won the battle by virtue of having prevented the good guys from fulfilling their success criteria. Naturally Rocketman later came around and quickly rescued Audrey from the detention centre, since the good guy always wins in the end, but the game itself was a victory for players 3 & 4, though we did lose the death ray tower to a direct hit by the mortar in the last moment so of the game.


...in the end, Korsakov was surrounded and forced to flee. His death ray went up in (green) flames and its secrets were lost. Khalnikov was returned to Moscow by the (some what singed) Colonel, and was never heard from again. It is unclear where Korsakov went. His armoured suit was never found and it is believed the remaining Khazakstani's finally managed to get their tank going and grabbing Olga and Korsakov, made a break for the forests...

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