Zona Alfa - Focused Mission 4 - Defend the Compound - Part 2

Original Draft 2021-01-09

So after the last cake walk of a mission I'd decided to review both the hostiles and the mission itself and give them some extra clout.

Rad-ghouls (snorks, bloodsuckers) and mutants (yowies) all became 2 wound critters, and additionally i did a full review of their stats - increasing firepower, armour etc as required. Not a huge amount of changes but some little tweaks here and there.

The specific mission became a d10 with a lot more hostiles being thrown into the mix. Rather than a d6 table with one hostile formation coming on per turn, I switched to a d10 table with normally two hostile formations coming on per turn. Which sounds pretty hectic, cos it is.

After a few weeks of no dice due to xmas, world plague, and other things to do, I finally managed to setup a board and have another crack at 'Onslaught'  aka  'Defend the Compound'.

I quickly reviewed the previous board (pics on blogs are great for this) and managed to set up a pretty close approximation. I included a few new terrain bits and bobs - stuff I'd built since last mission - which would have been on the original board if they had existed - aka fencing, sandbags and a couple of extra trees. Mainly thematic stuff, rather than larger, LoS/firing-lane changers. Anywho...  

The majority of the crew (the three rookies and LEADER) are positioned at the front of the compound, with SCROUNGER taking the right flank...

And HUSTLE on the left flank...

While they could all probably have been set up high and centre, the side positions provide a focus for the incoming hostiles... Bait? Me? Maybe.

I should point out that on round one I rolled a 10, which brings in no hostiles! Extremely fortuitous, and gave the crew   a) a chance to move into position with less pressure (reassuring),   b) one turns-worth less of incoming hostiles (invaluable).  This kind of 1 in 10 chance reprieve really adds to the narrative aspect of the game.

As per the previous mission the board quickly becomes a shooting range (even more so), with Mutants coming in wave after wave from the West...

Zombies and Snorks from the East...

Despite the Mutants being dealt with expeditiously (as very much appropriate) they are followed up by packs of Dogs...

And more Zombies relentlessly enter from the East...

BTW, I haven't included pics for every hostile generation [general sigh of relief].

The mounds of corpses start piling up (and have to be removed for reuse) but the Western side, despite the veteran presence covering it seems to be pressed harder.

Focusing on one side inevitably leads to added pressure from the other side, with Zombie and Snorks gathering enmass on the East.

Snorks. Bloody Snorks...

And more Zombies from the West....

The new Hostile Deployment table is quite relentless, and the boosted-stat hostiles (which will spice up the 'regular' games) require the full efforts of the crew to put down. Glad I added some extra hostile models to the box when I had the chance/motivation.

Calling on every advantage they can, the crew lobs grenades to take down clustered hostile mobs, swig electric juice like it's water for extra zing, and basically push themselves to the edge of their capabilities.

Turn 6 saw another roll of 10, allowing the crew to focus on the threats building up around them, and getting far too close to the walls. The sudden shift in eminent threat/priority was palpable (and extremely welcome).

I called the game at the start of Turn 8. There were no threats capable of getting to the compound by the end of the turn, and frankly I'd had enough of shooting and record keeping.

SCROUNGER picked off a dog in the far distance that had just spawned with his bonus (crit) action. After having just crit-grenade'd some zombies.

It was a fairly intense battle. A lot depended on successful dice rolls but I think there was enough management involved to make it not entirely a random outcome - very little movement, but a lot of selecting who is shooting at what and when.

I stuffed up a couple a couple of rolls / bookkeeping events (but only a couple) and had HUSTLE perform one action more than he should have (having eJuiced him the previous turn) [Nods sagely... St Strelock was guiding your hand soldier], and also I think I double dosed one of the rookies with eJuice [welcome to the zone kid].

Basically, like most of my games, there was a point beyond just shooting and positioning where I remembered that they had other skills and gadgets and everyone started skulling eJuice and lobbing grenades  :)

Both HUSTLE and SCROUNGER had to retreat from the flanks toward the end of the game, when the hostiles came a bit too close. On the West side one hostile did manage to make it into the centre of the compound before the rookies took it down. On the East side SCROUNGER was base-to-base with a zombie, taking several actions to eventually blast it down with his shotgun - despite multiple
crit rerolls - the zombie managed to make armour save after save... bloody tough they are.

Initial thoughts include that it's not the kind of mission I'd want to play frequently, but it was different enough to include in the mix. I think my previous veteran squad would have dominated the defence better, but the rookies added some fun uncertainty to the outcome.

Overall, an enjoyable session and worth playing for the story. 

Until next time...