Zone Alfa - Away

Original Draft 2022-01-24  - but I forgot to actually publish it back then... so, this happened.

January it is fairly common for us to go to Canberra for a family visit.

I'd left my paper craft characters and cobbled-together terrain there from prior visits etc but decided I was going to   a) take my real ZA models, rules, dice etc   b) make some printed/card terrain to keep down there (replacing the impromptu stuff I'd made previously).

So before leaving I printed off some structure images on light cardstock/thick paper. Upon arrival it didn't take that long to cut out, glue and stick tape the structures together (and some pine trees on toilet rolls which have since been replaces with papercraft / official ones).

I ended up playing 5 games... kinda, over the last 2 days [plus more after I wrote this up].

Game 1 was an 'explore and salvage' mission. Games 2 and 3 I attempted a raid the bandit base, but these didn't play out well at all (too easy).

Game 4 was another 'explore and salvage'. and Game 5 was a new variation. 

The terrain works as anticipated and I set up different configurations for the different games.

I also worked out a new 'stat chart' for use in-game. specifically I can keep all the (player) model's markers on the chart rather than on the board. Shifting around 1 model but then 6+ markers is annoying.  This way as I  i.e. spend an action I can slide an action token from left to right. If you make a crit roll then you add another action marker on the left. If you roll a failure when shooting, put a pinned token on the weapon etc etc.    Still working out the details but I used this methodology for most of the games an it worked a treat. To the point where I made up some 'formal' charts in word. 

Game 5 was an experimental scenario I called 'mirror-mirror'. You have 3 Hot Spots to clear at the front, and when you trigger one, another one triggers automatically (random hostile type selection, and with no inspect/adjust hostiles possible) at the back.

I was finding the standard exploration games a little easy, and just enjoy a bit of variety.

The first HS triggered some dogs (front) and bandits (back). The second HS triggered mutant yowies (front) and bandits (back).

This was FAR more challenging. To the point where the stalkers only managed to trigger 2 of 3 HS...

And got overrun at the end.  I had 6 turns available * and at the very end of turn 6 the last stalker fell.

* calculation:   4 turns + 1 for solo + d3

Overall, a fun series of games and I enjoyed this final variation. 

Game 1 earned 18,450 credits,  Game 7,050, and Game 1,250  which they lost.

Credits were very easy to come by with vanilla scenario, especially when you got an anomaly or two.

The crew was 3 veterans with fairly basic loadout (assault rifles + smg or pistol).

I'm calling it a day for this particular crew. Probably could have them take battle scars, but it seemed like a neat conclusion narratively, they tried and died...

In other news...

Cancon,  as it so happens,  was on.  Decided to duck in for a really quick squiz.

Was "lesser" than other times, fairly obviously. Rumour has it that the organisers didn't green light the event until about 4 weeks ago.  So I imagine that, plus reduced places took their tolls.

Btw we played 'pretty much as normal' back in 20...18.   and as far as I'm aware everyone is still alive. Just sayin'.

Ended up buying a few bits and pieces...

i) Eisenhorn, yep, the forgeworld one,  cos it was there. The books were fun, so why not. was a long-term, way-down-the-wish-list item.  May end up fronting a KT or munda squad.

ii) The new emperor's champion...  cos Templars.  Was on a more recent wish list. Not sure what i'll be doing with him yet. Am kind of considering getting one of those 3-packs of primaris marines and just having a 'token set'...   alternately I could paint him up grey as a statue/objective for epic.... dunno yet.

iii) A box of custodes,  so that will be a token 'base' set for playing around with kill team as contemplated a while ago.

Update 2022-03-07

Bit of edit here, formalised and 'published' the scenarios to relevant fb group. 

scenario - Settlement Recon-Bandit Camp.pdf

Ok, until next time...