Zona Alfa - End of the Weekend Mission

I managed to get a solo game in on Sunday.

Given equipment lugging, board and mission setup, play time, and then pack away it's not a super-quick undertaking, so a suitable block of time is needed to make it worthwhile.

The upgraded crew were back for a follow up to their last mission. New forest pieces make an appearance at the infil point.

Ideally i guess i'd like to make half-as much forest again, maybe same amount again. What i have is ok, but it would be nice to have more filler, and it does that quite well.

I actually left the 2 barns off the table so i've now got enough terrain to have a surplus... yhay!

Threat Level 2, Mission Objective near the top right (crashed drone again,  again). Hot Spots generally around mid-top sector (mainly randomly set). One appeared just near the infil point.  Exfil point is top left, so we have to go diagonally up and across the board, then back to the other side again.

An anomaly popped up immediately, along with some mutants (chose mutants over bandits as i didn't want to be dealing with a gunfight straight away).

The crew was fresh out of the APC so overwatch took out the other 2 straight away. The other two made it into base contact with LEADER but melee killed one and an aimed shot from SCROUNGER took out the last one.

* they were so close enough that i was pretty much applying the 'Unintelligent Hostile' rules for them = charge.

I've made a couple of adjustments to the stat lines of the mutants, reflecting their particular characteristics.

UPDATE...

actually i'm modifying the stats of most of the 'melee' hostiles.

Mutants

They have 8" move, up by 2" from 6" as they're lanky and springy.

And they will have firepower 3 (three dice, per attack).    Given they have teeth + claws (grouping both hands/talons as one firepower) + stabby spikers (...one firepower)  they deserve a few more dice. 

I did think about making it 5 (teeth+claws(r)+claw(l)+spike(r)+spike(l)) but that could be a bit over the top. We'll see how firepower 3 goes.

Also, ongoing; Zombies will have firepower 2 (teeth + claws), and Dogs/Rats will have firepower 1 still (teeth).

Back to the mission..

Everyone moves up the board to the MO, sniper takes position near a pile of junk.

Zombies appear and move toward the crew (LEADER made the bolt toss first try for a change!!). HUSTLE is hidden on the other side of that 'memorial', he takes one out with overwatch, and LEADER takes out a second. A zombie moves and makes base contact with LEADER before SNIPER uses an aimed shot to take it out. The final zombie makes base contact with LEADER and KNIFE steps in to base contact and melees it.

The Mission Objective was achieved but produced no salvage (another set of rules i had to reread and work out. So, you DO get salvage from MO but strictly SCROUNGER doesn't get two searches on it. Only on Hot Spots). 

Think they'd only got one set of loot, the crew triggers the other one just to the left of the MO. Mutants and an anomaly (i forgot to place the anomaly, but didn't take a pic anyway).

Overwatch reduced the group to half and KNIFE chopped his was quickly through the other two (man of the match?).

SCROUNGER searched the HS (i also forgot to do the artifact roll, must have been a really weak anomaly). Now at turn 6 a roaming band of dogs appears on the far side of the board. Not a huge threat at this stage (Control Check roll).

Although there was another HS just to the north (up-board) there were only 3 turns until the Hostile Phase started. Having fought off 3 groups of hostiles already they called it a day not wanting a repeat of the last mission where they were actively chased off the board. 

Again, a very fun game and, as more and more rules sink in gradually, i'm able to add more details and clauses as  i don't have to study the basics all the time. Invariably i still forget this or that which i chalk up to 'the luck of the zone'.

The improved mutants will prove more of a challenge next time for sure.

Bandits didn't make it onto the table. I had a new set with still wet paint so we'll likely see them next time. Kind of influenced my choice of selecting mutants over bandits at the HS.

The last of the crew got their Load Bearing Vests and Kelvar. Two of the crew got stat bumps SCROUNGER +1 will,    HUSTLE +1 combat.

They're now 2 mission away from promotions (i'm counting the aborted mission too, because combat happened) which will mean a reshuffle of the team. I'll still stick with 12K worth of crew. 

And that was that. Good fun. Good flow.

Until next time...