The Grenades, the grenades, remember the grenades...
'...You were walking round the whole time with two frags in your pocket?'
As with many solo games not everything is remembered in the heat of battle so this time let's try and remember the frags shall we?
The second mission in the mini/warm-up campaign is an ATTACK on the overgrown ruins our heroes spy through the trees so no need for Searches just kill everything.
Setup generated 3 Tentacles, 2 Giant Spiders, 3 Mutts and 1 Hyena Tick. (Mmmmmm) scattered mostly around the centre of the board. The adversaries took the initiative (surprise me) and off we go...
Turns 1-4
Two Mutts moved to size up Cole but his Flak Coat still smelled of arachnid from the last mission so he took a couple of speculative shots at the first spider scoring 1 and 3 wounds and taking it out.
'Right people you've seen how I do it so let's go...'
Frag time! Radcliffe got that crazy look in his eye, moved 6 and tossed a killer pineapple at the tentacles (bang on target)while spawning a brace of Alien Savages for rolling a 12 for activation. The first tentacle took three hits and instantly relocated, the second was fine, as was the second spider and the third tentacle was saved by its armour. A distant Mutt looked up at the commotion and took a piece of shrapnel in the spleen for its curiosity and another piece grazed Cole as he was standing just within effective range.
'Radcliffe you ape that was my good hat!'
'Sorry Boss, my bad. Good shot though eh?'
The second spider moved to protect a salvage marker and the tick closed in on the crew. Butler shot at the other two mutts killing one and taking the other down to a single condition point while Hooper moved up 6 inches. An altogether productive first turn.
Turn 2 was a quieter affair with Cole taking out another Mutt with his single shooting action. The Hyena Tick fancied its chances against the Pathfinder and dealt him a solid hit that was only saved by a Flak Coat but suffered a swift machete death for its valour. Butler only managed a stuttering 6 inch move and Hooper failed to activate at all. The savages moved in together and the remaining spider random moved 4 inches away.
The bad news was that the tentacles, devoid of attention relocated to the far side of the board, which was going to make taking them out all the more difficult.
In the Attack scenario there is an automatic spawning at the start of turns 3 and 4. Turn 3 delivered another Giant Spider as the adversaries took the initiative. The first spider random moved just short of Radcliffe, and Cole shot point blank at the savages, doing for one and knocking the other down to 1 Condition. The last savage rolled 2 for its actions and got close enough to Close with Butler but nothing came of it besides a bit of shoving and name calling.
Radcliffe got 3 actions, killing a spider with a shotgun blast then lost his grip on his last frag with a bit of a wild throw that caused no damage. Hooper finally woke up moving 12, revealing two salvage markers and flushing two Rad Rat swarms from their burrow.
The spawning at the start of turn 4 generated a Carnivorous Ape in the deployment square 10 inches behind the slow moving crew (marvellous news).
Cole's three actions brought a 6 inch move, a shot on a tentacle for nothing then another move for 1 salvage in the bag and another held if he didn't move again. The rats began to circle Hooper who had become somewhat separated but couldn't find an opening. Radcliffe didn't plan to waste his two actions but did, he moved into short range and gave a spider both barrels. 3 dice for damage, result, until he rolled two out of a possible sixteen for wounds, the spider just shrugged and went back to his screenplay, meh.
Butler was in base contact so even with his default move had to fight and lightly beat the savage to death with his rifle butt. Hooper didn't care for the swarms surrounding her but only hit two stones, a tree and a lot of grass with her two shoot actions.
HALF TIME
Turns 5-8
Turn 5 heralded a golden period for our heroes though Cole's failure to activate didn't show it. The rats, having survived the pistol barrage last turn charged Hooper, one of them paying with their lives to wound her and cost her an activation for this turn.
The ever optimistic Radcliffe decided it was time that someone put a dent in the tentacle situation. Two longish shots bounced off the armoured hide of one but took the second tentacle down to a single condition point. It relocated 5 inches away in disgust. The spider saw a chance and tried to nibble one of Radcliffe's legs off but couldn't get a single 6from the two dice it rolled. Butler top scored for actions and called his animal friends to come and have a go if they thought they were hard enough and a zimian savage obliged him. He then spent his two actions taking pot shots at the tentacles, one was saved by its armour but the other disappeared below ground for good, minus a few bad smelling chunks. Finally the carnivorous ape wanted a closer look at one of the salvage items, a path that would take it through Butler.
'Boss? what's the procedure for 13 foot gorillas again?'
'Not sure...have you tried soiling yourself?'
'Yes...it's still after me...'
The crew took control again in turn 6, with Cole pinging a wound from one of the tentacles, while Radcliffe, who is fast becoming the crew's rising star, saw off the advances of a giant spider, then after wiping the innards from his boot ATC'd toward the nearest tentacle and blasted 3 wounds of it with some close range scattergun antics. Tyke.
The rats went after Hooper once more but she simply used their bodies as a trampet. Butler the Ape wrangler, called two more zimians with a random spawning, then decided that he didn't really like super intelligent monkeys after all and slopped off in the other direction, bagging a salvage and holding another if he didn't move before time was called. Hooper concurred and fast walked from where the apes were massing, while the cowardly tentacles relocated behind the woods. (not James).
Turn 7 saw Cole leaving his held salvage in favour of a pop at the tentacles but his shot was deflected by wartiness. The carnivorous ape was distracted by a salvage point and Radcliffe rolled another 12 for actions bringing a wandering dinosaur to the party, his long range shots at the tentacles killed one but for the second he needed a 12 to take it out and could only manage an 11. Two of the zimians wanted the salvage that Butler (who only default moved so elected tostand still and HOLD his lot) is codling and move in, the third zimian savage shambles off in favour of some easier pickings while Hooper quietly claimed a salvage marker for the crew by only just negotiating a spot of rough terrain.
Last turn and Cole's shot ricocheted off the last tentacle's armour again, the two zimians declared that they were finally hard enough but Butler, in taking a wound and losing his activation, beats them both back in a fair fight with nothing more than a rifle butt and a pair of soiled combat trousers, surely worth a drink at the bar should he survive.
Radcliffe manages to get within short range of the last tentacle and blows its tip off, sending it slurping back to the depths from which it came forever, killing the last of the adversaries that needed to die for victory.
Elsewhere Hooper protects the salvage the crew so desperately need but pays the ultimate price at the creepily long fingered hands of a zimian savage.
With three apes and a dinosaur converging on the suddenly pasty looking Butler...the game ends.
DOWNTIME
Didn't think they would pull it off but 'Damn people!'...how's Hooper by the way?
She rolls a 'think it's busted' result for survival and bereft of any medical supplies will sit out the next mission but she will survive.
So goodies...salvage was much better this time, Butler claimed 1 and held 1, and Cole claimed 1 too and along with one for each surviving crew comes to 6.
Meaning a shiny new backpack and Flak Coat for Radcliffe and a couple of stun grenades. Butler also got a Flak Coat and Cole got some Armour Piercing round for his handgun (ironic). There were also loads of Rations found including a Cache which brings the crew an extra EXP point.
Speaking of experience points...All the starting adversaries were cleared and 1 for the Cache gives 5 in total. So Butler gets his Tradetongue skill improved (handy) and an Intellect and Melee improvement, raising them both up a rank. Hooper gets a Condition point to toughen her up and Melee improvement too.
Cheers all
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