Both teams had been sent into the Zone to search for a deactivated military robot (see my previous post for the intro to this scenario, ABC Warrior). We both started in corners on the same edge of the board, with the intention of searching the village for the missing robot (the robot could have been in any of the seven building POIs, plus there were an additional five more POIs scattered around the board).
This was the most challenging game so far, notable for a bandit ambush that occupied my opponent, Russ, for three turns, several failed Will tests forcing my bone doc to wander off looking for or salvage and an incredible streak of lucky shooting by Russ' rookie.
I came out on top in salvage and advances, but Russ wasn't far behind, thanks to good use of his scrounger in making second searches of POIs.
Adding leftover advance points from my team's previous game, I had enough advances to do three upgrades; which were used to upgrade armour on my leader and veteran, as well as give my LMG gunner a movement bonus (obviously the experience of plodding along behind with his support weapon made him get some fitness training in).
The teams advance onto the board. It was raining, so visibility was reduced for several turns (so no long shots against each other).
My team advances to the first building.
I drew 'Nothing of Interest', so better luck next time. On towards the next building.
Meanwhile Russ's team moved in to investigate the dacha in front of them ...
... only to draw 'Bandit Ambush' Three turns later they had despatched the bandits, after a lot of poor shooting rolls and using up several Med-Kits and novel use of a smoke grenade (engulfing several of the team in smoke so that they couldn't be shot at, but also couldn't treat wounds or shoot).
While Russ struggled wit the bandits, my team moved on to the next two houses. They found a wounded stalker in one (using up a Med-Kit to get him on his feet). The next one contained the main objective (the robot), but was also home to a pack of ghouls.
Fortunately Crazy Ivan (my veteran hiller) and my LMG gunner had been placed on alert. As the ghouls swarmed round the building they met with a hail of ammunition, including hot load ammo from my LMG.
With the ghouls out of the way my scrounger and tech specialist (accompanying my team just for this mission) climbed through a window and started work on the robot. With several actions required (open casing, disable tracking circuit, power up robot and activate it), this took three turns to complete due to failed tech rolls.
Russ dealt with the original ambush and a second group of bandits who popped up at another POI. I therefore did a bolt toss at a building between us, in the hope that it would spawn something to keep him occupied. It spawned an infestation of zombies. However, to our surprise, Russ' rookie opened up with his shotgun and kept getting critical hits, wiping out the entire group of zombies single handedly.
With Russ busy mopping up whatever salvage he could find on the board, my force casually strolled off with the main objective. Any mission into the Zone that you can walk back from is a good mission!