Following on from Round 4, I had a more than decent 58 pts to spend on new crew members and upgrades. I knew I was going up against Steve and The Queens, and they’d made no secret of the fact that they’d found a Police Station – and that meant they had access to a whole range of handgun/shotgun nastiness. I was pretty sure an UZI and silencer would have been purchased/looted – I certainly would if I had access to that resource. From my perspective, the Fireflys needed more feet on the ground, so I enrolled Eugene (with assistance from the Campaign Bonus Card acquired in Round 4) and with some of the remaining points, treated myself to a Bandoleer as the Tranquilliser Rifle wasn’t reliable and nor were my ammo-rerolls. This gave me 11 pts to carry over into Round 6 and allowed me to turn up with 360 pts worth of crew and equipment. This was going to be very, very close.
Campaign Round 5: Breakthrough A hard-fought game ending in a draw, and importantly from my perspective, no lasting injuries. That’s a success in my book and a fair result to a cagey, tactical game.
Breakthrough was another scenario taken from the ‘March to War’ play test rules adapted slightly to fit with the All-Out-War ruleset. The scenery was set up thematically more than anything else, but we avoided using any buildings as this would more than likely force us apart and make for a dull game. There was however a good mixture of area and blocking terrain. There were no points available for either supply counters or the Win/Draw on this occasion; the only income would be from current and new territories however there was plenty of opportunity for outgoings as we were faced with 25 Walkers and with an opponent not renowned for taking any prisoners.
The first couple of turns followed a similar pattern; both crews moving up through the centre and ‘their’ side of the board eliminating Walkers as they went, picking up supplies (for VPs) and generally trying to stay out of LoS of anyone with a ranged weapon. That, and the awareness that certain characters were each rolling a shed-full of dice in combat and neither of us really wanted to be caught on the wrong end of that. Steve and The Queens had indeed purchased themselves an UZI and silencer and as such I was very wary of getting too close to anybody competent waving that weapon around. Having been on both ends of that combination in the past, I was fully aware of the capability. However, the gloves came off when Steve moved forward far enough to pick up a supply counter at the expense of any cover. Vasquez at this point managed to get a clear aimed shot. I was expecting/hoping to put a few wounds on Steve and get him knocked prone. What I wasn’t expecting to do was to take him out one shot. I certainly wasn’t going to complain and it had the added advantage of eliminating Steve and The Queens UZI whilst unsubtlely reminding them that they had some significant ranged firepower pointing in their direction.
This turn of events encouraged the Queens (in the most part) to stay on their side of the board and allowed the Fireflys to stick to their side and pick up a few supply counters. Unfortunately during the push forward to our extraction zone, both Patrick (rolling 3 whites) and Tom (rolling 2 whites and 2 reds) managed to get bitten (against no more than 2 zombies) – not good news as they could no longer score VPs. The priority now for those two was to not only stay alive, but importantly keep their health above 2 so they could survive the encounter and didn’t run the risk of the dreaded Blue Dice of Death in the Up-keep phase. To their credit, both Tom and Patrick must each have had 3 Shredded Wheat for breakfast as in the remaining 5 or 6 turns, they only failed 1 bitten roll each – much to Sven’s obvious (and understandable) frustration and disappointment. This must have clearly balanced out the fact that I couldn’t pass an ammo re-roll, only managed to lower the threat once or twice and couldn’t get Walkers to stand up again.
A couple of turns later, we both had an equal number of Supply Counters and scoring individuals in the extraction zone, we just had to get our last scoring individual into the extraction zone, or at very least reduce the opponents scoring individuals. Vasquez was in the unenviable position of trying to get into the scoring zone but being the only individual who could stop the Queens from scoring. Que some dancing around the trees trying to get a shot at the cowards, while both of us trying to get the threat up to end the game – tricky with nothing really between us to cause mayhem. The last couple of turns were spiced up with the promise of allowing Vasquez to reach safety if she promised not to shoot. However, on calculation she wouldn’t have been able to make safety in the remaining time (thanks for the offer Sven!), and it would still have been a draw, so she elected to continue taking pot shots in the hope of edging a win. The game ended after a turn high threat and everyone rolling the panic dice – a couple of screams and several quiets made it a little tricky to achieve very much other than getting out of the whole affair just about alive and with honours even.
Overall, a really enjoyable game against a well tooled up opponent. Trying to stay out of combat with Sven was a sensible idea as demonstrated when I managed to get 3 Walkers onto one of the Queens, who, with his Stab! re-roll managed to decapitate all 3 Walkers at once! My combat rolls were decidedly average (or just below) however I more than made up for this with my bitten rolls for both Tom and Patrick. I fully appreciate I had a run of good luck there and could have finished the encounter in a much worse position than I did. I also made some tactical errors in the last turn which could have netted me the game but as mentioned earlier, a draw was a fair result.
When the dust had finally settled, I’d killed 13 Zombies and incapacitated 1 Enemy Survivor. I also managed to acquire 1 new territory and everyone walked away with another Red Die of experience and +3 pts to their cost.
Post-Game Position:Survivors: Tom (53), Vasquez (51), Tara (47), Eugene (41), Patrick (32)
Equipment: 2x Tire Irons (20), 8mm Pistol (18), Katana (18), Fire Axe (15), Tranquilliser Gun (14), Hockey Stick (8) Shiv (4), Riot Gear (17), Football Pads (12), 2x Ammo Reload (16), Bandoleer (14), 4x Bandages (20)
Points available to spend: 56 (11 carried over, 45 for Territories)
Firefly’s Total: 456 Total Zombies Killed: 40
Total Enemy Survivors Incapacitated: 5
I’ve got a good idea of what’s on the shopping list for the up-and-coming Turf War (revenge match) and it might include a veteran skill upgrade…
…I might also consider cashing in three dice for a Nerve Upgrade.
) in the post-game sequence roll gave me +2 territories (neither of which were Danger Zones!!!), so a further +10 pts this round.
). Much more assured than Tom who was struggling to anything more than push over a Walker in contact with one of the two final supply tokens.