Zona Alfa - Cheeky Mid-Week Mission

Managed to get a board setup today and rolled some dice.

The temptation to get the newly completed terrain pieces was too hard to resist - will check failed.

The Distribution Centre and one of the Offices made it on (yhay). I used some of my plain (unmarked) mdf road as hardstand. Regular road running vertically with (busted in places) chain link fence demarcating the Distro Centre boundary.  And a whole bunch (ALL !!) of the new trees (yhay) making a forest to the right. 

The mission was rolled up randomly and then I made a story/details from that. 

The crew's APC hit some kind of anomaly that killed the electric system, the battery is dead. The crew needs to get to the APC, fix it, get it rolling again, then get the heck out of dodge.

Specifically one of the crew members needs to make 3 successful (not consecutive, though that would be helpful) will checks to 'fix' the vehicle.

Infil point is middle right, and Exfil point is middle top. Once fixed the APC will trundle down the road to the Exfil point (which takes a few turns) - meet up with it there.

Being Threat Level 2 there are 4 Hot Spots which I positioned 'non-randomly).

One was at the rubbish dump on the right, another in a clearing in the forest...

Another in the Distro Centre near some containers and the last near a fuel dump...

The crew sets out. Same line-up as previous couple of missions. Two veterans, one hardened and 3 rookies.

Actually SCROUNGER  was promoted but I keep forgetting (and wasn't on my cheat-sheet) he's a veteran so I'm leaking activations a little. Got him all updated on the stat sheet for next time.

HUSTLE and LEADER quickly move up to the Distro Centre, inspect the MO point and trigger it with bolt toss. Zombies.

I should only have given them a 1x move deployment bonus move but they accidentally got two. oh well.

HUSTLE uses his activations to lob grenades at them, taking out 3, leaving one, who ambles up into base-to-base with HUSTLE.

SCROUNGER runs up into base-to-base with the zombie and manages to take it out, but suffers wounds doing so. Self-medkit brings him to OoA and feeling poorly.

LEADER (bone doc) med kits him and gets him standing again next turn.

Hepped up on painkillers SCROUNGER takes off for the MO point and starts on the will checks. He has will check bonuses so not too difficult for him.

In the mean time KNIFE inspects HS2 and   HUSTLE triggers it with another bolt - failing first bolt tosses as famously as LEADER had done in previous missions.

Bandits! and an anomaly !

1x ak, 2x pistol, 1x knife

Using advanced AI processing the ak bandit and one of the pistol bandits seeks cover. The other pistol bandit takes a pot shot at SCROUNGER who's rather exposed up on the APC. and the knife bandit moves forward to close the distance (also toward SCROUNGER).

HUSTLE chugs an eJuice (and thanks to the help of some crit bonus actions) and takes out knife bandit, then ak and pistol bandit (both with -2 obscurred modifier) and leaving just the bandit who had shot at SCROUNGER.

LEADER steps in and dispatches the last bandit.

SCROUNGER has by now activated the APC, so LEADER Orders SCROUNGER on to Search the anomaly.

SCROUNGER searches like a champion despite the -2 (Threat Level) modifier and produces a shiny new artifact and some loot (forgot that he get's 2x loot bonus, oh well). 

The APC has left the centre and wass heading up the road.  At end of turn 7  I called the game as all the crew were at the Exfil point waiting for the APC which would be there next turn.

Although there was a HS quite close to the Exfil point we opted for the safe option.

Fun game. Quick. Never really had an "oh that's bad" moment, though the need to get the APC moving governed the direction of the mission for the first few turns, rather than being the usual free-flowing, casual 'scavenger hunt' event. All good.

rookies

The rookies still felt like dead weight (sorry, but that's what it felt like). They were pointed at the Exfil point from the start and despite being available as a firing squad on HS2 the veterans were able to pick off the bandits before the rookies got their guns up. It just felt like a better option to cheerleader the extra Orders to the vets to achieve bigger tasks than positioning rookies who would have brought worst stats to bear.

The rookies have another two mission to go before they graduate, so they'll probably still get a look in. I'll try to make a more rookie friendly mission for next time. 

movement

A lot of this (rookie hate :)) has to do with movement. The crew for solo needs to be fast and manoeuvrable - demonstrable imo.

I watched/read some battle reports. Where people are playing with multiple crews, even if they're playing co-op, they tend to focus on the MO and HS point on their side of the board. There's not a mad dash to cross the table, achieve what you need to, and then dash out ASAP.

Different requirements is my conclusion. I'm actually thinking about running the APC as a usable transport method rather than just an In/Out marker.

d10

Had some discussions and inspiration on/from FB.  This mission saw the use of modified tables, requiring nothing but d10, so no d6 required (yhay). Worked as anticipated.   I like one set of dice for my game, whatever that game might be or whatever the chosen dice type is.

holiday

LEADER and SCROUNGER have run all 8 missions on record thus far. I'm considering giving them a holiday, but probably after mission 10 when the rookies step up to big-kid duties. Will need to restructure the crew. All fluff considerations.

Until next time...