NUTS Last Knight – None Shall Pass!

NUTS Weird War Mission Report

Campaign area: Czechoslovakia, Player Starting Specific Area

Situation: Early morning, October 1 1938. Czechoslovakian border. The sky above glitters with the dawn-lit contrails of German bombers winging their way to targets deeper in Czechoslovakia. German fighters have also occasionally flashed by over head, but have not reacted to you – a single man on horseback. You have reached the border checkpoint between Germany and your beloved Czechoslovakia to find the soldiers in retreat, cowering before an advance column of motorized German troops led by Panzer Is. This is your homeland. Your cause is just. You will not retreat. None shall pass!

Last Knight Character Sheet

The Last Knight is a STAR and is built as a Super Soldier with magic equipment based on the legendary Paladins of Charlemagne. His Attributes include: Magic (Holy Magic), Initiative, Combat Monster, Unstoppable, Endurance, Heightened Awareness and Inspiring Presence. These combine to make The Last Knight an incredibly resilient fighter.

• Endurance, for example, adds +50% STAR Dice. STAR Dice are unique to your leading character and for each die you expend you can convert a Wound level down by one, or you can re-roll a die of your choice. So with a REP 5, this adds (rounded up) +3 STAR Dice, for a total of 8! This means the STAR could shrug off up to x8 fatal hits! But wait, there’s more!
• Initiative gives a modifier to REP for activation
• Combat Monster adds +1d6 to Charge and +1d6 to Melee
• Unstoppable converts OOF results to Carry On
• Heightened Awareness reduces penalties for Night and obscured LOS (rain, fog, etc.)
• Inspiring Presence means all friendly figures within LOS can activate when the STAR does

With the Unstoppable Attribute, the Last Knight can expend one STAR die to turn an Obviously Dead combat result to Out of the Fight…which Unstoppable converts to Carry On!! Now let’s see his equipment.

• Froberge – the blade of Paladin Renaud de Montaubon provides Piercing, giving it an Armor Piercing Rating = to the wielder’s REP (5) — so the sword can cut through a tank!. It also does extra damage to Demons.
• The Maille of Renaud provides extra protection
• The Magic steed Bayard can travel 18″ move over any terrain, and can only be hurt by magic weapons and supernatural creatures.

Turn 1: The Germans have stopped at the border post and two Officers pull their pistols and demand the Czechs step aside. This was an Opposed Challenge and the Czech soldiers were wavering until the Last Knight galloped up and used his leadership skills to shore up their morale. The Last Knight demand the Germans leave, that they have no authority here!

The Last Knight moves up to defend the border post

Turn 2: Roll for Activation. The Germans win activation and the Officer decides to shoot the crazy man causing trouble as the rest of the German soldiers deploy from their trucks. The Officer shoots at the Last Knight and hits, but the OOF wound is nullified and the Last Knight Carries On. Since that was the only figure shot at, other figures don’t react. On the Czech activation the Last Knight charges at the Officers and engages them in Melee, and hacks them down!

Then the Czech soldiers open fire on the Germans, blasting one squad and sending others diving for cover! Some Czech soldiers were hit as well, despite being behind cover.

Turn 3: The Germans activated first, and the infantry and tanks move into action! Two of the Panzer Is move to engage the Last Knight with a hail of machinegun fire, which is shrugged off by his Armor and Unstoppable attribute. The other tank engages infantry on the left flank, fails to hit anyone but causes them to Duck Back behind cover, while the German infantry advances. The Last Knight charges the lead Panzer (handled as a Close Assault with the +1d6 REP for being Combat Monster) and slashes into the tank with Froberge, it’s flickering blue flames carving deeply into the tank, causing the crew to bail out and flee (APR 5 attack vs AR2 frontal armor, roll 2d6 against the difference (5-2 =3) – and got a Pass 1 result, the tank is disabled)! The Czech infantry regroup and recover from Duck Back.

The Last Knight disables a Panzer I

Turn 4: Once again the Germans activate first! Looks like the Last Knight, unused to actual combat, is uncertain about the pace of the battle. The Germans, having passed their Man Down tests, decide to press the Last Knight and burst through the barricade. Once Panzer I charges the Last Kight to run him down, the other charges the Barricade. The tank charging the Last Knight misses and its machinegun fire causes one Obviously Dead result, so the player burns a STAR die (dropping from 8 to 7) to covert that to OOF, which he ignores with Unstoppable. The other Panzer I smashes the flimsy barricade and crushes a soldier, and its machinegun fire is deadly a devastates the Czech defenders who flee from the tank. The other Germans move up to the wire and the gate area and fire a hail of bullets at The Last Knight to no effect. When the Czechs activate, the soldiers fall back while the Last Knight flanks the Panzer I and slashes it with Froberge, slicing through steel and igniting fuel and ammunition – the tank bursts into flames!

The Last Knight slices open a Panzer I

Turn 5 – The Last Knight loses activation again, and with a “3” and a “4” for the Germans means the Germans get reinforcements, and a new infantry squad moves up to replace the fallen squad on the right flank. The Germans move up and pour machinegun fire and even grenades on the Last Knight forcing him to burn more STAR dice and forces him into Duck Back. On his turn he Recovers and rallies a surviving Czech defender.

Turn 6: This game went crazy from here, with a lot of Activation rolls of “3” for the Last Knight and “4” for the German side, resulting in more German Reinforcements. Germany Scores — and since I remembered my NUTS Mission Deck, I pulled a card and the Germans got… Armor! Well, let’s interpret that as a Recon unit of armored cars and motorcycles since I don’t have anymore light tanks painted up. The Recon unit zooms down the road to join the fight! Meanwhile the Germans advance on the Last Knight and pour on the fire, burning another STAR die and once again forcing him back out of sight.

German recon unit zooms on the board

Turn 7 – The Last Knight wins activation and charges the remaining Panzer I, slicing it open with Froberge and setting the tank ablaze! On the German turn they drive the Last Knight back again with heavy gun fire, and the Recon unit moves up to join the action.

Turn 8 – Germans win Activation, 4 to 3! Pulling a card we get Civilians, which we choose to interpret as Partizans — the Sudeten Freikorps, pro-German partizans, show up to help their German allies. The German forces move up as well.

Sudeten Partizans attack!

Turn 9 – The Last Knight wins activation and charges into a group of German infantry that has crossed the border defenses, killing several and driving off the rest with slashes and cuts from Froberge. German return fire, including from the Armored cars, once again drives the Last Knight back. The Sudeten Freikorps engages the remaining Czech soldiers in a firefight.

The Last Knight Charges!

Turn 10: This would be the ‘official’ stopping point, but we kept playing anyway. German activation! The German side wins activation 4, 3 and gets reinforcements again – this time it’s Air Strike! A German fighter dives on the fray and drives the Last Knight back in a hail of machinegun and cannon fire, burning STAR dice and once again driving him back, as the Recon unit moves to flank him. I think the Germans REALLY want to force this border crossing!

The Freikorps and the Czech soldiers continued their skirmish!

Turn 11 – The Last Knight wins activation and attacks! He charges the two armored cars and declares that he will leap the first armored car and his horse Bayern will attack the exposed TC, then he’ll attack the other one with his sword. OK, so let’s have him do a FIT test to make the jump — succeeds, then melee at say, -1REP from the maneuver with the armored car TC – and wins by a pass 2! The TC is killed by a strong hoof blow as Bayern leaps over the vehicle, and then the Knight wins the Close Assault test and attacks the second armored car and slices deep into the turret, igniting ammo stores! The German Recon unit kills the remaining Czechs on the right flank and moves to support the Friekorps.

The Last Knight attacks!

Turn 12 – German win activation 4, 3 again! This time we pull another Infantry unit that moves onto the table, and the recon unit attacks the Last Knight, forcing him to burn another STAR die, and the deploying German infantry add to the mayhem with more flying lead! In response the Last Knight charges the recon unit — it’s horse vs motorcycle!

More Germans! Now we’ve seen about two platoons of infantry and armor on the table.

War Horse vs Motorcycle!

Turn 13 — No way, a German win of 4, 3 Activation again!?! We pull another NUTS Card and we get an infantry unit with an AT gun! The SdKfz 7 with a PAK 38 trundles on the table and sets up to engage the Last Knight! The Last Knight and the Recon unit skirmish inconclusively as more Germans move up. The last surviving Czech soldier finally defeats the last of the Friekorps figures.

German ATG enters the battle

Turn 14 – The Last Knight activates first and continues his fight against the Recon unit send the survivors scurrying for cover, and the the last Czech soldier runs for the edge of the table. Then the ATG sees the Last Knight in its sights and opens fire — a hit, causing an Obviously Dead result! The player burns his last STAR die to reduce the killing shot to OOF, which is converted to Carry On by his Unstoppable Attribute. No more STAR dice, one more kill shot and it’s over!

Yes, that blurry thing across the table is the Last Knight — open fire!

Turn 15 – the Germans win activation again with a 4,3, and get reinforcements. The card pull says Medium Armor, which would mean a platoon of Panzer IIIs will join the battle! Nope, sorry, says The Last Knight player — I’ve done my duty and upheld the honor of Czechoslovakia…besides, I’m out of STAR dice and the way thing are going I’ll be dead! So the player trots over to pick of the Czech survivor and exits the table to fight another day.

This was a fun and frenetic game, the Last Knight was almost unstoppable, the German player kept wearing him down until he was out of STAR dice and got a crazy amount of reinforcements. Basically this was the equivalent of a company-sized attack that came in piece meal as the German commanders got word of hold up at the border, and the constant pressure from German reinforcements eventually forced The Last Knight to retreat. The Germans did win, but at the cost of multiple vehicles and several lost squads of infantry.

Tags: history, Wargaming, world-war-2, world-war-ii, wwii