ARBBL

I started off with the following 125 pt crew:

Survivors: Tom (38), Patrick (20) and Tara (32).
Equipment: 2x Tire Iron @10pts ea (20), Fire Axe (15).

Campaign Round 1: The Day After the Night Before…

Success for the Fireflys! We managed to get to the objective without taking any casualties whilst snaffling a few supplies on the way. I wasn’t best impressed when the first supply card drawn was a Booby Trap – I mean, who in their right mind starts Bobby Trapping stuff on Day 1 of the Apocalypse…? From there on in, it wasn’t too bad. No crippling events and a fortuitous Car Alarm to draw the zombies away from the objective all helped.

By the end of the game, I had secured 3 Supply Tokens, so +15 pts.
The Supply Tokens also netted me an Ammo Reload (8) and a set of Bandages (5). The Booby Trap only gave me a rigging in my ears and a couple more knicks on my Tire Iron after having to fend off the subsequent attention of the zombies.

A reasonable territory roll (ie. not my normal Blue Dice roll ) in the post-game sequence roll gave me +2 territories (neither of which were Danger Zones!!!), so a further +10 pts this round.
My plucky Survivors managed to get through without too much of a scrap or scratch so they each get themselves a red dice of experience and their cost increases by 3pts each. Between them they also killed a total of 4 zombies (shoddy dice rolls) which was pretty poor. A bit disappointed my main bruiser could only knock over Walker Penny and not properly club her to her final death.

Post-Game Position:
Survivors: Tom (41), Patrick (23) and Tara (35)
Equipment: 2x Tire Irons (20), Fire Axe (15), Ammo Reload (8), Bandages (5)
Pts available to Spend: 25
Firefly’s Total: 172 pts

Zombies Killed: 4
Enemy Survivors Incapacitated: 0

I’ve now got a little bit of time to try and decide what (if anything) I spend my additional 25 pts on and how I allocate my Experience dice.

Lessons Learnt (or remembered): Controlling the Threat Level is key.

So following on from the Firefly’s initial success, and in addition to the previous post-game position, I spent 18 pts from my 25 pt pool on a 8mm pistol meaning I went into Round 2 with a crew size of 165 with 7pts remaining to spend at a later date.

Campaign Round 2: This s@*t just got real…

Another success! But not quite as easy as our first foray into the New World Order though.

Things weren’t brilliant from the start – Patrick was suffering from Fragile Sanity (Campaign Event) and was limited to a white dice of actions per turn and would automatically panic if he activated with 3 Walkers in his kill zone. Fortunately, he managed to hold it together throughout the encounter and at least not roll a blank. He was a little slow and tentative however. Fortunately, Tom and Tara set about removing Walkers with abandon and quickly picking up supplies along the way. Unfortunately, half of the supplies I picked up were empty boxes and Lurkers. I didn’t have to worry too much as all the Walkers seem to have just woken up and we’re struggling to hit anything effectively (thanks Dave!). There was an initial rush for some of the supplies which ended in Tara having to take on one of the Serpents. But by running in and making use of the noise that that caused, she managed to draw 2 Walkers on to the Serpent as well as being in combat, meaning it was a relatively safe take-down.

The action then moved to the other side of the campsite with a rush to grab the remaining supplies before time ran out. Patrick made a brave call to get in contact with one of the remaining supply tokens, denying Derek the opportunity to draw the game. Derek then, out of anger, ran around the tent, drawing a Walker on to Patrick, shot at Tom with the Old Gun he had just found, drawing another Walker onto Patrick. I was starting to fear for Patrick at this point as it looked like he was about to be zombie fodder, and if didn’t do something spectacular, there was a significant risk he’d be panicking next turn anyway. Doubly worrying, as he had 2 of our Supply Counters. He clearly had had his Weetabix that morning, and had packed his uber-tire iron for this outing, taking out both Walkers with one almighty swipe (thanks again Dave ). 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.

At his point, all hell was let loose: ‘There’s a Storm coming’ was drawn followed immediately by 2x pandemonium. Walkers were suddenly moving in all directions (mainly towards Survivors) and even more were creeping out of the woodwork. The threat started to rise quickly putting the Firefly’s at risk of panicking. It was clearly time to get out of dodge with my loot and survive to fight another day…

By the end of the encounter, I’d managed to score myself another Ammo-Reload (8) and a set of Bandages (5) amongst the 4 Supply Tokens I picked up (20).

Back to my normal Blue Dice Roll for territories (1!) in the post-game sequence. As none of the spaces I can pick for my next territory can be contested, my territory bonus for this round is 15pts (5 for the newly gained tile + 10 for my currently held tiles). Tom, Patrick and Tara all survived and gained themselves another red dice of experience and their cost increases by a further 3pts each. Between them, they managed to kill a more respectable 6 zombies and incapacitate 1 Enemy Survivor.

Post-Game Position:
Survivors: Tom (44), Patrick (26) and Tara (38)
Equipment: 2x Tire Irons (20), 8mm Pistol (18), Fire Axe (15), 2x Ammo Reload (16), 2x Bandages (10)
Pts available to spend: 42 (7 carried over, 20 for Supply Counters, 15 for Territories)
Firefly’s Total: 229 pts

Total Zombies Killed: 10
Total Enemy Survivors Incapacitated: 1

I think I know what I’m going to spend my hard-earned points on and how I’m going to allocate my Experience Dice, but that could all change…

After the success of Round 2, I had 42 pts available to spend on tooling up the crew some more. In the end I decided to go for a Katana (18) and a set of Riot Gear (17). After shuffling some of the kit around and taking some bandages along for good measure, I racked up for the next encounter with a crew value of 199 and awaited with interest to see what the Mad Scientists were going to bring to the party…

Campaign Round 3: Supplies are still needed.

Success! Again! (This can't last)

This was an interesting skirmish. First up we’d identified that one of the storage containers had a hulking great gun it (Campaign Event) which could do some serious damage to whoever was on the wrong end of it – clearly this was going to be a race to get there, and unfortunately the Firefly’s had the greater distance to travel. Discretion and Valour were beginning to cross my mind but with relatively wide-open fire lanes covering a lot of the skirmish area, we couldn’t afford to give up all of those supplies. If we couldn’t get to the gun first, we’d just have to stop the other crew from being able to use it…

The action started with a bang, quite literally. The crazy Scientists were firing shots off with their hand-cannons from the start. Not to worry as it was drawing the zombies away from us and over to them. The Firefly’s took the opportunity as Tara moved away from the noise to start slicing and dicing the undead before hoovering up supplies. Patrick, having helped clear zombies away from the car, headed to after Tara to help grab the loot. Tom headed over to the shipping container to stop the nutters from firing the heavy ordinance. Fortunately, the plan worked. The only fly in the ointment was the fool with an animal catcher, deftly manoeuvring zombies around to attack Tom. Not to worry, when Tom had cleared a little space, and after getting fed up of having to batter more of the undead than necessary, he took a calculated risk and shot the fool (Glenn) in the face, hard. Very hard. No defence was going to stop 7 hits and 3 headshots… Unsurprisingly, Glenn dropped his supplies as his body attempted to cover as wide an area as possible. The only downside was one of his colleagues came and picked up his supply cache. Well, at least they were clearing up after themselves this time and it bought the crew some time to liberate a couple more pieces of loot. All the Fireflys had to do now was avoid the crazy girl (Andrea) with the gun… …who fortunately today couldn’t hit the broadside of a shipping container from 6 foot away. Tara got very, very, lucky - lot's of dice were rolled, not many hits came up!

By the time that both sides had managed to avoid any serious panicking and had retreated, I’d managed to score another Ammo Reload (but had to use it as my gun had run out of ammo), 2 sets of bandages (10) and a Hockey Stick (8). Overall the Fireflys had picked up 6 Supply Tokens (30) (including another Booby-Trap (Again!) and an Ammo Reload I didn’t have space for).

I had a completely uncharacteristic Blue Dice Roll for Territories (3) and as they aren’t contested gives me a further 15 pts to add to the current 3 territories I hold (15pts) so a very handy territory bonus this round of 30 pts. In addition I now control a Hospital (bonus when healing) and a distribution centre/warehouse (can get melee weapons (there's only one!) and special items over 20 pts).
Tom, Tara and Patrick all survived and gained themselves another Red Die of experience and the standard +3 pts to their overall cost. They are now clearly getting into their stride as between them they managed to kill 10 zombies and another Enemy Survivor.

Post-Game Position:
Survivors: Tom (47), Tara (41), and Patrick (29)
Equipment: 8mm Pistol (18), Katana (18), Fire Axe (15), 2x Tire Irons (20), Riot Gear (17), 4x Bandages (20), 2x Ammo Reload (16), Hockey Stick (8)
Pts available to spend: 67 (7 carried over, 30 for Supply Counters, 30 for Territories)
Firefly’s Total: 316

Total Zombies Killed: 20
Total Enemy Survivors Incapacitated: 2

It might be time to recruit another Survivor as I hear there are some large groups out in the wilderness and by all accounts, they’re decidedly unfriendly…

Riding my currently continuing vein of luck (it’s only a matter of time…), I had a whooping 67 pts to crew up with. Realising that I was about to come up against the ranged fire-power focussed, numerically superior Gentlemen of the Apocalypse, I had a couple of options – either invest in some serious protection all round or add some ranged fire-power of my own. In the end, I decided to go the ranged fire-power route and recruited Vasquez (Martinez) (45) and armed her with a Tranquilliser Gun (14), leaving me 8 pts to carry over. After a bit more shuffling of kit amongst the crew, I arrived with a crew weighing in at 290 pts got ready to Ambush the GotA. This was going to be close.

Campaign Round 4: Ambush

A hard-fought success! That said though, the final score was rather flattering and didn’t really reflect the cagey nature and closeness of the game. But more on that later.
The scenario was taken from the ‘March to War’ play test rules and modified slightly for All Out War rules. We settled on a good mixture of area and blocking terrain which set up a few good fire lanes but also allowed a reasonable amount of manoeuvre. Given that the only points up for grabs were the 10 for a win or 5 for a draw, the Campaign Event would add a little extra spice – Recruitment Drive. This would allow the winner of the game to recruit new Survivors (only in the next post-game sequence) at a reduced cost. After the scene was set, the GotA decided to defend the objective, meaning I had to split my force and start the march towards the centre of the table, clearing out Zombies and Enemy Survivors as I went…

The first couple of rounds were quite cagey, with both crews going for the quick win Supplies nearest to them. Although Night-fighting rules where in force, I was particularly wary about their Compound Bow wielding, Riot Vest Wearing Mega Marksman (I’d learnt the very hard way in a warm up encounter that he was particularly effective at wiping out individual characters with one volley before they got the chance to shout ‘Robin Hood!’). With honours even in terms of Supplies picked up, I managed to get an aimed shot off with Vasquez and took out Julie, forcing her to drop the Supply Counter she’d just picked up. The added advantage for the Firefly’s at this point was we weren’t going to now be out activated – well at least not for this turn. All I had to do was avoid the return incoming fire - Fail! Despite Patrick attempting to protect Vasquez, the GotA manged to get an accurate shot off and immediately reduced her to 1 remaining wound – this was not going as planned. On the other side of the Ambush, Tom and Tara were happily carving their way though Walkers, picking up supplies (Tara managed to get a set of Football Pads to compliment her outfit) and setting up to rush the barricades whilst hopefully avoiding being shot in the face by the Rifle wielding Dale.

Tom (my leader, not my opponent!) was using every trick he knew, relying on the fact to bring Walkers into combat to either block LoS or force a black dice roll for target selection should the Gentlemen decide to fire into combat. This, coupled with the fact that the Gentlemen seemed reluctant to fire off a shot (the mayhem caused would have attached a significant number of Walkers onto Dale and Patrick around the objective) gave Tom and Tara the opportunity to get in close and have a fighting chance at claiming the objective. Patrick and Vasquez were having a harder time of things. After reloading and patching herself back up with Patrick’s bandages, Vasquez was focused on staying out of range of the Compound Bow wielding hotshot, whilst Patrick spent time trying to stay the other side of the bus shelter and not get eaten by the incoming Walkers – these 2 were effectively tied down but were hopefully causing enough of a problem to keep the Gentlemen away from the action in the centre.
Back with Tom and Tara, I managed to sneak in behind Dale a shoot him from point-blank range in the back and fail to kill him! The only saving grace was the mayhem caused started to draw Walkers in and I felt a little more comfortable in melee than he did. At this point, the threat level started to rocket up and everyone left standing was taking panic tests. Getting a couple of Berserk rolls at this point helped no end. Ultimately, Patrick succumbed to the continual sniping and whilst beating of Walkers, got absolutely pummelled by Lacy and dropped his 2 Supply Counters. Tom and Tara, with the help of the ever-encroaching Walkers, managed to get rid of both Dale and Patrick in the final turn, leaving the objective in our possession.

As mentioned earlier, the score line was rather flattering considering both crews were in it right up until the final throws of the dice and it could have gone either way. Going into the final turn, I think it was 5VP a-piece as things stood, but damage was starting to be taken and it was a case of who could just hold out the longest. When the dust had settled, the Firefly’s had killed a further 7 Zombies and incapacitated 2 Enemy Survivors.

In the post-game phase I got reasonably lucky, no lasting impact on Patrick and 2 new territories (yet to be determined and will be uncontested) to add to my current 6, giving me an additional total of 40 pts to spend in the upkeep phase along with the 10 pts for the win. Tom, Tara and Vasquez all net themselves another Red Die of experience and the associated additional +3 pts.

Post-Game Position:
Survivors: Tom (50), Vasquez (48), Tara (44) and Patrick (29)
Equipment: 8mm Pistol (18), Katana (18), Fire Axe (15), Tranquilliser Gun (14), 2x Tire Irons (20), Hockey Stick (8), Shiv (4), Riot Gear (17), Football Pads (12), Ammo Reload (8), 4x Bandages (20).
Pts available to spend: 58 (8 carried over, 40 for Territories, 10 for the Win)
Firefly’s Total: 388

Total Zombies Killed: 27
Total Enemy Survivors Incapacitated: 4

Given the Campaign Event Card bonus, I think I’d better recruit another Survivor…

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.