PLAYTEST RECORD // SHOW YOUR WORK
FILED_FROM: KUYBYSHEV RELAY STATION // EURASIAN STEPPE
FILING_DATE: 2026-06-11
RESULT: RELAY DOWN // T6 EXTRACTION
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BARCODE: SIG-BATREP-2026-06-11
断
OPERATOR TACTICS // THREAT RESPONSE // RECONSTRUCTED
MARGIN
CALL
THE ROUTING CHAIN SEVERS // T4 TERMINAL
THREAT RESPONSE
KUYBYSHEV STATION
RELAY DOWN
T6 CLOCK
2 OPS
// ROLL IN THE OPEN // COUNT THE DICE // BLAME THE TERRAIN // FILE THE REPORT //
// OPERATOR TACTICS // THREAT RESPONSE
A two-operator team hits a frozen EO relay station with a six-round clock, three weapon jams, and exactly one pip to spare at the terminal. The intel did the work. The dice almost took it back.
MARGIN CALL
BY RIO SOLVENG
GAME: OPERATOR TACTICS // THREAT RESPONSE
FILED: KUYBYSHEV RELAY STATION // EURASIAN STEPPE // 2026-06-11
TELEMETRY: RECONSTRUCTED // THE DICE ARE ON RECORD.
// DESK NOTE // M. KOSE
The jam count at Kuybyshev was three, the relay margin was one pip, and the medic handled both. Two operators, a frozen building, and the kind of scouting intel that does its work before anybody fires a shot. Worth filing.
// DEPLOYMENT
GAMEOperator Tactics // Threat Response (Solo Mission Builder)
SCENARIOOperation White Ledger: destroy the EO SIGINT routing matrix at Kuybyshev Relay Station before the maintenance window closes
OPERATOR ASLATE // Marksman. SHOOT Good 2+, GUTS Good 2+. Suppressed DMR. AR 1. 3FW/2MW.
OPERATOR BORLA // Medic. OPINT Good 2+, GUTS Good 2+. Field Dress. AR 1. 3FW/2MW.
TABLEKuybyshev Relay Station, Eurasian Steppe. Decommissioned fuel relay repurposed as an EO dark logistics node. Five zones: perimeter fence, approach corridor, relay building interior, open yard, east extraction gate.
OBJECTIVEExtended Op: destroy the White Ledger routing matrix. 1 TACT check required (reduced from 3 by pre-mission intel + Objective Shortcut). Secondary: recover 3+ Intel Markers before the relay check.
WIN CONDITIONRelay destroyed. Both operators extracted by T6.
TURN CAP6 rounds (tight window modifier). After T3: silent alarm active, reinforcement inbound from Extraction Zone.
The station at Kuybyshev sits two kilometers off the steppe corridor, dead infrastructure repurposed badly. What it used to pump is not important. What it runs now is the White Ledger routing chain: a SIGINT relay threading EO logistics traffic through commercial satellite dead zones, moving contractor payments and supply manifests without a flag. Two names on the contract. Six turns to close it out.
SLATE and ORLA inserted at first light. The ground was frozen solid, no mud to slow anybody, no wind to cover movement. SLATE acquired the perimeter guard at thirty meters through a suppressor and put a natural six into him. Under these rules that is always a Mortal Wound, which means the guard went down without a sound and without a bounce. One token off the board before the approach had even warmed up.
The intel did the work. Three markers across the approach corridor and the objective zone, and each one paid out. The first locked SLD-A's patrol route so the team knew exactly where to step. The second sat in an equipment shed in the approach corridor and contained asset location data: a plus-two bonus to the next TACT check at the terminal. ORLA banked it and kept moving. The third flagged a structural bypass into the relay building, a cracked service duct that put SLATE inside the objective zone with surprise attack advantage before the room's defenders knew the building had been breached.
THE INTEL DID THE WORK BEFORE THE OPERATORS ARRIVED
Turn two, a heating pipe gave out somewhere in the approach corridor. Steam filled the zone. Visibility dropped to six inches for two rounds. Terrain/Major event, the kind that forces a replan. Here it rewrote the plan in the team's favor: a window of cover in the middle of an open building, masking movement into the relay block while SLD-A and SLD-B held positions blind.
SLATE took the surprise shot through the service duct in turn three, clipped SLD-B for a flesh wound, then dropped SLD-A with a second natural six as the corridor soldier tried to close range. VET-CADE fumbled his reaction: a natural one on the first alert activation. Exposed, cover bonus stripped. The veteran who had been anchoring the kill zone in an entrenched position with AR 2 was suddenly standing in open ground at AR 1, and did not get cleanly back before the relay died.
The relay. TACT check, Ordinary threshold, four or better. ORLA spent her first T4 action pulling the fourth marker, which carried an Objective Shortcut and dropped the requirement to a single success. She spent her second action on the terminal. The raw roll was a two. Not enough on its own. The Asset Location bonus from the approach corridor shed pushed the modified total to four, which was the floor and the ceiling at the same time. One point over nothing. The White Ledger routing matrix flatlined.
Then SLD-R came in from the extraction zone and put a natural six into ORLA's chest plate. She went down on her knees in the relay room, took a breath, ran her own OPINT stabilize at Good threshold. Another natural six. The wound cleared. She earned a Performance Token, got back on her feet, and the mission was already won.
SLATE's rifle seized three times in six turns. Two weapon jams and a compromised scope. The last jam went off on the way out, trying for a final shot at CADE. SLATE ran the extraction route with a cracked sight picture and one flesh wound from CADE's parting shot, made the TACT check to navigate the collapsed walkway, and was out before the clock hit zero. ORLA spent a Failsafe token and followed.
// THE TAPE
T1Ops win priority. SLATE drops G1: natural 6 = MW = OoA, silent kill. ORLA recovers IM1 (D20=3: Patrol Schedule, SLD-A route locked). SLATE earns 1 Tempo. No Event Phase T1.
T2Ops win priority. Steam pipe failure: Terrain/Major, Approach Corridor visibility 6" for 2 rounds. ORLA recovers IM2 (D20=9: Asset Location, +2 to next relay TACT check). SLATE wounds SLD-A (5, FW). SLD-A return fire (4, miss). Both operators advance under steam cover.
T3Ops win priority. Climax fires on Objective Zone entry: BARASH cooperates, silent alarm triggered. SLATE surprise-shoots SLD-B through Security Flaw bypass (modified 6, FW). SLATE drops SLD-A: natural 6 = MW = OoA. CADE natural-1 fumble: Exposed, Entrenched AR bonus lost. SLD-B natural-1 fumble: Compromised Gear. ORLA recovers IM3. Intel/Minor Opportunity: ORLA spots BARASH position. SLATE: 2 Tempo.
T4Ops concede priority. ORLA recovers IM4 (D20=17: Objective Shortcut, relay reduced to 1 TACT check). ORLA relay TACT check: raw 2, +2 Asset Location = 4, threshold met. RELAY DESTROYED. Primary and Secondary both complete. SLATE natural-1 fumble: Weapon Jam. CADE misses SLATE (2). SLD-B natural-1 fumble: Dropped Weapon. Reinforcement SITREP Likely (6: yes, SLD-R arrives Extraction Zone). Terrain/Major: exterior walkway collapses, alternate exit required.
T5Ops concede priority. SLD-R shoots ORLA: natural 6 = MW. ORLA GUTS check (5, pass). ORLA self-stabilize OPINT Good: natural 6 = MW cleared, Performance Token earned. SLATE clears jam (action 1), hits CADE 1FW (4, action 2). CADE hits SLATE 1FW (3). SLD-B retrieves weapon. Intel/Moderate: SLD-R motivation confirmed Paid.
T6Ops win priority. SLATE natural-1 fumble: Compromised Gear, scope damaged. SLATE extracts via alternate route (TACT 4+, rolled 4). ORLA spends Failsafe: extraction auto-succeeds. CADE's final shot hits SLATE 1FW (4). SLATE GUTS (3, Good 2+, pass). SLD-B misses ORLA (4). SLD-R misses ORLA (4). Clock zero. Both operators clear.
// WORKBENCH
// HOW IT ACTUALLY PLAYED
The mission was decided by two dice, and neither was a combat roll. The natural six on G1 in T1 banked Tempo and cut the enemy count before the approach tightened. The Asset Location roll from IM2 in T2 sat on the table for two turns and then did one thing: pushed ORLA's raw 2 to a 4 on the relay check. Without the scouting pass in T2, the relay survives. That is the whole game in one sentence.
SLATE's fumble rate is worth logging separately from the result. Three natural ones in six turns is bad luck, not bad play. The fumble table applied fairly: two weapon jams and a compromised scope. The jams cost actions and nothing else, because ORLA had already completed the primary objective before the second jam hit. The sequence protected the outcome: objective first, combat second.
CADE's natural-1 in T3 is the balance-swing moment. Exposed at AR 1 instead of AR 2 in cover, CADE went from needing a 4+ to hit to a 3+, and from needing a 4+ to be hit to a 3+. That change opened T5 for SLATE's flesh wound connect. Without the fumble, CADE might have closed the extraction route.
- One thing to try next time: Split the roles from turn one. SLATE on combat exclusively, ORLA running every Intel Marker. The relay check is the mission, ORLA's OPINT Good makes her the better option on the terminal, and the Asset Location bonus rewards the operator who already touched the second marker. Keeping SLATE on the approach while ORLA ran the full intel circuit would have freed SLATE for a cleaner two-shot activation in T3.
- Balance read: Three nat-1s in one session sits at the edge of what the fumble table can absorb without collapsing the mission. The Compromised Gear result on T6 was the gentlest possible outcome. A Total Failure (D6=6) on T6 with CADE closing would have been a very different report. Consider flagging the fumble table as a potential campaign-breaking element in short-clock missions.
Secondary objective complete (3 Intel Markers before relay check). ORLA earns 1 Tempo to carry forward per the Secondary Objective reward rules. Four rules gaps logged to RULES_GAPS.md this run, primarily around self-stabilize and Extraction Protocol SITREP failure outcomes.
// DISPOSITION
RESULTRELAY DOWN // SECONDARY COMPLETE // BOTH OPERATORS EXTRACTED // T6
CASUALTIES // OPSSLATE: 1 FW (walking wounded, scope damaged). ORLA: 0 FW (self-stabilized under fire, MW cleared T5).
CASUALTIES // ENEMYG1 OoA T1 (SLATE nat-6). SLD-A OoA T3 (SLATE nat-6). CADE, SLD-B, SLD-R functional at clock-zero. BARASH unharmed (cooperated via Climax Variable).
MVPORLA // Relay destruction T4 (the only TACT check that mattered). Nat-6 self-stabilize under fire T5. Failsafe extraction T6. Carried the back half of the mission.
SHE PUT HERSELF BACK TOGETHER AND KEPT WORKING