Return to Zona Albion - AAR: The Quatermass Run, Part 7

[CapnJim]

Not much loot, but at least they got their instrument.  Too bad about the flash storm, though.  Sh*t happens....

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Great AAR and a nice board.

[Doug ex-em4]

Flash Storm was drawn only once. I just placed it next to Fletcher as he got caught in the open and therefore needed to make an armour save against its D3 attack.

My system of POI cards incorporates Zone Events into the POI deck rather than rolling for them separately. This does mean that it is possible to draw multiple Zone Events in a game or, in this case, in the same turn. On investigating a POI, if a Zone Event is drawn the player then draws another POI card for what was actually at the POI (i.e. Cobwebs and Fumes in this game). Both the Zone Event and whatever was at the POI are then played as normal. If the second card drawn was another event then that is also played and you draw again for the POI (hence mist at the start of the game dispersed with Weather Lifts, only to be replaced by Heavy Rain on the next card drawn for the AA phone box POI.

Thanks for the explanation - all is now clear. Having had a couple of games to get to grips with the rules and, for simplicity, using the charts in the rules for Hot Spots, Effects etc, I think it’s now time to adopt your system.

Looking forward to more  Zone Albion entertainment.

Doug

[Bullshott]

Thanks for the explanation - all is now clear. Having had a couple of games to get to grips with the rules and, for simplicity, using the charts in the rules for Hot Spots, Effects etc, I think it’s now time to adopt your system.

Looking forward to more  Zone Albion entertainment.

Doug

The nice thing about using your own POI deck is that you can use your own cards to fit in the flavour of your campaign or to include scenario-specific encounters, be they hostiles, loot, hazards or Zone events.

I often used a reduced deck (typically 50 to 100% more cards than there are POIs in the game) with a number off scenario specific encounters and the balance made up of random cards from the main deck. This increases the probability of drawing particular hostiles you want to play (sometimes the 'special' I've added doesn't come into play and other times I get the special monster I wanted, along with random high level hostiles I didn't expect). It means you never can quite be sure what you're going to encounter, which is a real bonus for my solo game. You can also load the deck to ensure a particular card is drawn in the first 5 or 1O cards

[Dentatus]

Excellent Bat Rep. Thanks for posting.

[Vagabond]

Thanks for the explaination of your POI deck of cards, I  usually do something similar in my own solo games. I've given a rough interpretation in the AAR I'm working on.
As you say it allows lots of buggeration factors to creep into a game and provide more interest and challenge than is normal. I like the weather effects, that you've chosen, neat.

Good game and a successful outcome, so onto the next instrument. 
Cheers

[Doug ex-em4]

The nice thing about using your own POI deck is that you can use your own cards to fit in the flavour of your campaign or to include scenario-specific encounters, be they hostiles, loot, hazards or Zone events.

I often used a reduced deck (typically 50 to 100% more cards than there are POIs in the game) with a number off scenario specific encounters and the balance made up of random cards from the main deck. This increases the probability of drawing particular hostiles you want to play (sometimes the 'special' I've added doesn't come into play and other times I get the special monster I wanted, along with random high level hostiles I didn't expect). It means you never can quite be sure what you're going to encounter, which is a real bonus for my solo game. You can also load the deck to ensure a particular card is drawn in the first 5 or 1O cards

The game I’m planning now will benefit from your system. I also need to work out the best way to have hidden POI’s. The terrain is wooded with limited visibility so I want the team to have to search for the POI rather than make a beeline straight for them. This will probably necessitate giving them longer that the usual number of turns. Any suggestions welcome.

Doug

[Bullshott]

The game I’m planning now will benefit from your system. I also need to work out the best way to have hidden POI’s. The terrain is wooded with limited visibility so I want the team to have to search for the POI rather than make a beeline straight for them. This will probably necessitate giving them longer that the usual number of turns. Any suggestions welcome.

Doug

I did that in my most recent game (to be posted here shortly). The main objective was hidden at one of four POI locations. The stalkers coul do a normal Bolt Toss/Inspect to see if they could see any hostiles, etc at the POI (a successful Inspect allows them to reveal the card contents without triggering any hostiles). However, in order to find the objective they had to physically go to the POI and  spend 2 actions hunting for marks on a tree that indicated the objective was hidden there.  With my normal luck the objective was at the final POI (as usual), so I had to clear and search four locations before securing the objective!

[CapnJim]

Hmm.  Great minds must think alike.  I'm considering my crew having to search for a Hot Spot too, as in "Gunny, there's something in those woods, but I can't quite make out where."  "Okay. You, you, and you, go in there and find it...".

I'm thinking they enter those woods, and have to roll progressively easier task rolls (in FFoL terms) until they find it. 

And I'm thinking it'll need more game turns, too.

[Bullshott]

Hmm.  Great minds must think alike.  I'm considering my crew having to search for a Hot Spot too, as in "Gunny, there's something in those woods, but I can't quite make out where."  "Okay. You, you, and you, go in there and find it...".

I'm thinking they enter those woods, and have to roll progressively easier task rolls (in FFoL terms) until they find it. 

And I'm thinking it'll need more game turns, too.

That's the rub. Searching for these things eats up game time, especially if you get zone events like Flash Storms sending you to cover or High Radiation reducing the number of game turns. Players that get distracted investigating nearby POIs/Hot Spots/Anomalies or involved in protracted fights soon find themselves running out of time to clear the main objective or not getting out of the area if they need to do so by the end of the game. It makes players become a lot more focussed on the main objective, hence in the last game (and the next one) the main objective was recovered but the crew couldn't afford the extra activation needed to see what other salvage was with it (getting out in both games literally needed all remaining player activations to safely escape the area).

[Doug ex-em4]

Hmm.  Great minds must think alike.  I'm considering my crew having to search for a Hot Spot too, as in "Gunny, there's something in those woods, but I can't quite make out where."  "Okay. You, you, and you, go in there and find it...".

I'm thinking they enter those woods, and have to roll progressively easier task rolls (in FFoL terms) until they find it. 

And I'm thinking it'll need more game turns, too.

I’m probably going to use a method Vagabond has suggested to me. Place maybe 12 small counters round the board. Take one suit of playing cards and nominate 4 (or however many POI you want in the game). The rest can be considered either "Nothing To See Here" or random encounters. Whenever the team gets to within effective range of a counter, turn a card to see if it’s a POI or not. Discard card so the chances of finding something get better as you proceed.

That's the rub. Searching for these things eats up game time, especially if you get zone events like Flash Storms sending you to cover or High Radiation reducing the number of game turns. Players that get distracted investigating nearby POIs/Hot Spots/Anomalies or involved in protracted fights soon find themselves running out of time to clear the main objective or not getting out of the area if they need to do so by the end of the game. It makes players become a lot more focussed on the main objective, hence in the last game (and the next one) the main objective was recovered but the crew couldn't afford the extra activation needed to see what other salvage was with it (getting out in both games literally needed all remaining player activations to safely escape the area).

Yes, indeed. I think I’ll allocate a bit more time than usual with E POI and a main objective but still keep the time allowance tight.

Doug

[Bullshott]

The Quatermass Run - Part 4: Grimdale Ring

The third instrument package was concealed in the woods around Grimdale Ring. Fletcher had been given directions to find the package and told to look for markings carved into trees on the north side of the ring. He suspected that it might take a while to locate the instrument if it was well hidden.

Fletcher was always a bit of a worrier, but this one he liked least so far. He really did not like any of the old woods in the Zone. They gave him the jitters and this was compounded by these particular woods being very close to the Red Zone. As they entered the woods all of Fletcher's fears returned when he saw toadstools taller than a bus. The sooner they got out of here the better.

This game was run at TL2 (although there was a TL3 mutant hidden in the deck) with a duration of 9 turns.
As usual, see photo captions for what happened.


Game setup. Four possible locations for the instrument are at POIs on the far side of the ring.


Taking the shortest route through the woods, Godber and Heslop went on Alert, while Lukewarm inspected the camp fire in the woods. He had a critical success and spotted a pack of hobgoblins.


The hobgoblins hadn't noticed the stalkers so, using his free action, Lukewarm took down two of them with his SLR. Godber and Heslop came off Alert and joined in the shooting. Godber got one greenskin, but Heslop missed them.


Now it was time for the hobgoblins to play and they charged the stalkers. An inconclusive round of combat ensued. Both the hobgoblins and stalkers shrugged off hits, except for Lukewarm who was winded.


Ingrid dived in and helped Heslop takedown his hobgoblin. With the greenskin well and truly dead, Heslop dived into the woods to investigate the fire pit Lukewarm had seen. Unfortunately there wasn't any salvage to be found.

Godber was struggling with his opponent, so Fletcher joined in. Pressing the barrel of his Sterling into the hobgoblin's side, he pulled the trigger and the greenskin was no more.

Lukewarm was still slugging it out with his opponent, so in the following round Ingrid joined in and emulated Fletcher by taking out the greenskin with her SMG at point blank range.


Moving on towards the first possible site for the instrument, Lukewarm spotted some armed men waiting in ambush. Godber came off Alert and killed the nearest to him. Heslop tried to do the same and missed abysmally.


The ambushers now opened fire, stunning Godber (Pinned) and wounding both Lukewarm and Heslop. Things weren't looking good.


Thank heavens for Med Kits. Heslop and Lukewarm both fixed themselves up. Lukewarm used two actions to un-pin himself, then used his third action to kill the nearest ambusher. Godber also recovered and took out the next ambusher. That left one remaining. Fletcher moved up and quickly despatched him with a magazine of 9mm.

Ingrid then rushed up to check the area. She found some good salvage but no instrument. Glancing at the nearest dead attackers she noted that they wore what appeared to be monks' habits over their clothes. Very curious.


Moving round the ring, Fletcher inspected the next possible location, only to see a mutated stag. Another burst of 9mm solved the problem. Unfortunately a subsequent check found no instrument in this area either.


Lukewarm checked the next location and found nothing. Time was running out with one possible location remaining. Fletcher signalled to Ingrid and Heslop to start heading back, while Lukewarm and Godber checked out the final location.


Another successful inspection by Lukewarm resulted in him spotting a pack of large dogs. He couldn't get a good angle on the dogs, so moved up closer.

Taking Lukewarm's lead, Godber came off Alert and killed two of them (one with a critical hit). Using his free action he took down another. Fletcher then used his Leader skill to donate all three of his actions to Lukewarm. One action was sufficient to take out the two remaining dogs, allowing Lukewarm to move over to the dogs' lair and start searching. He quickly found the instrument package. However, time was running out so he didn't stop to look for salvage.


The crew hurried out of the woods, with Lukewarm struggling with the bully instrument package. It was a close run thing and Godber only just made it.

Epilogue:
That was a lot closer than Fletcher liked. First the hobgoblins that just wouldn't go down when you hit them. Then there was the ambush that wounded two of the team. They weren't the run-of-the-mill zone scum either. For a start, they were armed with foreign assault rifles (Heslop said they were Kalashnikovs). Then there was the fact that they wore robes like monks' habits. Something about them just wasn't right.

The whole episode was a race against time. Trudging through thick undergrowth and having to look for marks on trees was always going to take time. The greenskins and the ambush just served to eat up any time they had left. Once again, they didn't get a chance to hunt for salvage, although the bit that Ingrid found certainly helped. They didn't have time to check out the anomaly either.

Overall, the team had done well. Between getting the Landrover on the road and finding the three instruments, they had amassed a reasonable amount of salvage and an artifact (total value 6,525 quid after Grouty's cut) and had gained a lot of experience (53 advance points accumulated, Ingrid and Heslop were now veterans and Godber was not far off). Quatermass was happy too, so that was another grand and a half in the kitty.

[Doug ex-em4]

Another rollicking read. A good job that the TL3 mutant didn’t appear by the looks of it - it may have held you up when time was tight. Once again, the limited turn factor makes for a taut game. Lukewarm spotted the hobgoblins by having a critical success but how did he spot the ambush by the armed men before it was launched?

Med-kits are your friend….

It’s coincidental that the table I have set-up waiting for a chance to play my game 3 is almost totally wooded and there’s a good chance that the team will meet some blokes dressed a bit like monks but with pointy hats.

Good stuff, as ever.

Doug

[Bullshott]

Another rollicking read. A good job that the TL3 mutant didn’t appear by the looks of it - it may have held you up when time was tight. Once again, the limited turn factor makes for a taut game. Lukewarm spotted the hobgoblins by having a critical success but how did he spot the ambush by the armed men before it was launched?

Hi Doug
In both encounters Lukewarm did a standard 2-action Bolt Toss/Inspect to see what was at the POI. In the case of the ambush Lukewarm was successful, so got to see what was on the POI card without triggering it (must have noticed some movement in the woods). He had no more actions (having used his third action for movement), but Godber and Heslop were on Alert (overwatch) so got to fire on the ambushers first. In the case of the Hobgoblins, Luke warm also moved (1 action) before using his other two actions for Bolt Toss/Inspect.  However, in this case he rolled a critical success (natural 1), so as well as spotting the Hobgoblins he got an additional free action for the crit (which he used for shooting at the Hobgoblins). Once again, others in the crew were on Alert so got to fire before the Hobgoblins moved.

Note that the armed ambushers were a normal Bandit card. However, I rule that if there has been any firing or explosions earlier in the game any human hostiles are deployed in ambush position and can fire as soon as whoever triggers them finishes their activation (instead of waiting until the end of the turn to activate as normal for hostiles). This makes bandits, etc much more dangerous, as they can shoot before the rest of the stalker team have moved. Hence I always try to place one or two crew members on Alert before another member investigates a POI. Of course, in this instance, it would have helped if a certain member of the crew had gone to Specsavers and not missed with every shot!

Dave

[Doug ex-em4]

Dave - thanks for the explanation. It highlights something else I’ve been doing wrong - bolt toss/inspection but I know better now.

I like the idea of human hostiles reacting to shooting in the way you describe. I was having a discussion with Vagabond earlier today about the effect of shooting on hostiles. His idea is that they would start moving towards the noise but that would only work if they’d already been discovered and deployed. I like your ambush idea.

Doug