Nido de Plaga IV: Escape

Status Report:

Having fought through the Asterian cordon your forces regroup to make a final push towards the pickup area and count your losses. Fortunately they aren't as serious as first thought and Commander Bolts has engaged emergency backup protocols to bring his suit back into action. Unfortunately you have lost one of the Commando's and the Mawbeast which had been vaporised by the Asterian Spectra.
A brief communication from your orbiting ship promises some reinforcements and a rescue ship will be launched to coincide with your arrival at the extraction point.
You know you must make sure Subject F is removed from the planet and hope that you and your fellow Marauders can make it as well.

This was the final battle in our 6 part narrative campaign which has seen the Marauders bravely fight and die above and below the surface of Nido de Plaga IV. It's also going to be the last game of v2 of Deadzone as my v3 box arrived this week. I got some extra terrain in the box including some all new cyber-punk style pieces which I've painted up in red, this adds another different colour onto the board.

The new terrain set includes several signs, awnings, boxes, shelves and a recycling bin amongst it's contents. This helps to add the impression of a Deadzone that has just come into being and hasn't had a chance to fall entirely into decay.

I purchased an extra set of the new additional pieces and made up a couple of little street eateries to place out on the table, the awnings will allow troops to shelter from enemies on higher ground and the little shelves with sauce bottles on look rather good.

Facing off against the escaping Marauders where a horde of ravenous Plague victims, with some starting at the edge of the battle and some already deployed forwards of the raised area the Marauders had to make it too.

The Marauders got some reinforcements for the two lost troops from the last battle in the shape of two Skyscrapper Commando's who dropped onto the battlefield after deployment was completed.

The first turns saw both sides advance with the Marauders laying down some fire into the Plague Zombies who shambled forwards. One Zombie did catch a Skyscrapper in melee and manage to kill him before being gunned down in return.

After that is was more of a punching match between the Marauders and the Plague with the Commando Specialist making good use of his HMG to shoot several Plague and even put two wounds on the mighty Aberration. 

The Commando escorting Subject F was killed by a Zombie and as Subject F ran away Bolts stepped up to tie down the Plague whilst the Gruntbot secured the rear lines.

With everyone else tied up the Gruntbot made a break for the extraction zone but held off calling in the rescue flight (after a fair bit of deliberation) in the hope that more Marauders could be rescued. The Marauder commander had by this point realised that as only one pickup could be made the size of the landing area meant not all the troops engaged could be rescued.

On the next turn Bolts was engaged by the Aberration and the Commando Specialist went down to a Plague Zombie.

When Bolts was killed by the Aberration the Gruntbot called in the rescue. To pile extra troubles on the Marauders the advance guard of an Asterian force had arrived on the battlefield and started to fire on both sides.

There was just time for the Rainmaker to run into the pickup zone in time to be rescued and along with the Mauler and Gruntbot, Subject F was picked up from the planet surface.

The decision of the Gruntbot to stay an extra turn didn't save Bolts or the Commando Specialist but it did mean the Rainmaker and Mauler managed to get away as well and it made for a tense finale to our final v2 game.

Now onto Deadzone v3 so we need to forget the rules we know and check through the book to make sure we adjust to the rules that have been updated.

Our next campaign should be using the Saga Age of Hannibal rules which Mr T is putting together, so hopefully we will be starting that in the near future.

Nido de Plaga IV: Capture a Base of Operations

From Marauder Central Command
To Commander, Marauder Assault Cruiser Mandrake

Captain,

Following your successful mission to secure the landing zone Marauder Intelligence has identified a nearby building complex which will make an excellent base of operations for your force. We have authorised the landing of a Mule transport to help with the movement of the supplies necessary to support your mission on the surface. Planetary scans show no current evidence of organised military forces in your area but further encounters with the 'Zombies' you identified is to be expected. We would recommend including at least one person with engineering experience in your escort team in case of issues with the Mule. Once you have the base of operations secured you can start our mission on the planet.

Gen. Radgrad.

Acting on his further orders Marauder Captain T. deployed a ground assault team lead by the Goblin Bolts. The strike team make-up was :

1* Bolts
2 * Gruntbot, 1 with flamer
1 * Boomer, engineer and grenade specialist
3 * Commando
2 * Mawbeast
1 * Ripper Rainmaker

They also had a Marauder Mule stacked full of supplies to escort up the table to the enclosed compound, we assigned this as having 2 armour and 4 health with a defence of 5+.

The Plague side started with the following on the table:

1 * Aberration
1 * Stage 3A General
6 * Stage 3Z Zombies
2 *  Plague Victims (from the Mazon Labs list)

The advantage of playing an umpire led narrative game is that I could mix up the forces as I liked and also feel free to bring on extra troops as I wished. I also put out two spawn points for the Plague, the Marauders had discovered in the last game that these points could be liable to being destroyed by fire if attacked. I gave them 1 wound with a save of 7+.

Things didn't get off to a great start for the Marauders as the Rainmaker leapt up onto a building to grab the closest supplies cache for it to be the only booby-trap on the table, this did no damage to him but did blow him off the building into the path of the Mule, meaning it wouldn't be able to advance.

Elsewhere the Marauders pushed up and killed a couple of Zombies and the Plague also advanced to try and block the Marauders from accessing the truck which was blocking the advance of the Mule. The Flamer Gruntbot also managed to remove the closest Zombie spawn point.

In the next round the Marauders continued to push forwards and the Rainmaker recovered enough to get a solid shot off on the Aberration causing two wounds, this forced it to take cover behind a handy building. Bolts and the Gruntbots assisted by the Mawbeasts continued to slaughter Zombies and the Plague side was running low of mobs to through into the meat grinder. At the end of Turn 2 I brought on some additional Zombies and Plague Victims to help turn the tide.

Turn 3 saw Boomer jump start the blocking truck and move it out of the way, this allowed the Mule to advance. The Aberration killed a Mawbeast and further Zombies and a Plague Victim fell as the Marauders continued to advance and the Plague reinforcements pushed forwards.

The game then devolved into a series of viscous melee combats as the all melee Plague clashed with the by now mostly melee Marauders, two of the Commando's fell to the Plague as did the second Mawbeast and one of the Gruntbots. But Bolts and flamer Gruntbot as well as the Rainmaker still pressed on. 

At this point the Marauders had the mule one move away from the secure area (they just needed to move it up to win) and the Plague had the route blocked so a grenade from Boomer was thrown but only managed to knock the Plague Victim onto the bonnet of the Mule.

When Boomer fell to the Plague that left only Bolts, the flamer Gruntbot, and the Rainmaker left to see out the mission. Fortunately the Gruntbot was up to the task as it managed a flame and melee combo that set the Aberration on fire and when it activated it tool the one wound it needed for it to be killed.

The three remaining Marauders then managed to clear out enough of the Plague to see the Mule to the objective. It had looked like the Marauders would easily win the game early on but adding in the reinforcements made it a much tougher proposition for them and it turned out to be a very close game in the end.

Next time the Marauders will be having a look around on the planet to try and extract some data on what has been happening.

 

Nido de Plaga IV: Secure the Landing Site

From: Marauder Central Command
To: Commander, Marauder Assault Cruiser Mandrake

Captain,

Our long range sensors have picked up distress signals from planet Nido de Plaga IV that indicate a major disaster has swept the planet. Details of the exact nature of the disaster are as yet unclear. We believe the planet was home to a Mazon Labs research facility, this corporation is known to have an extensive weapon and bio-tech research program. As you can see from your star chart the planet is close to the Death Arc and therefore on the border of Asterian space. We believe local resistance should be limited but you should be prepared for other off planet forces to arrive and investigate.
Your mission is to travel to Nido de Plaga IV at top speed and once their neutralise any remaining corporate threats, discover what the cause of the disaster was and most importantly secure any remaining technology for the Marauder cause. Your ship and it's company will be the only Marauder forces on hand so all other forces met are to be considered hostile and dealt with swiftly and with extreme prejudice.
Your first task on arrival at the planet will be to secure a landing site for your ground forces, once this is completed further instructions will be issued.

Gen. Radgrad.

The message above was received by Marauder Captain T. last week and heralded the start of a 6 mission mini-campaign which will see him lead his brave Marauders onto the planet Nido de Plaga IV to discover what has happened and most likely kick some serious arse. Their first priority was to secure a landing area so heavier equipment could be transferred to the planet surface and to eliminate a Mazon Labs security detachment that was holding the area.

The Marauders advance party landed to find a smaller Mazon Labs force holding off a large number of Plague victims whilst presumably hoping for rescue themselves. Captain T. opted to send the following force into action in this mission:

1 * Marauder Warlord

3 * Marauder Commando's

2 * Mawbeast

1 * Marauder Commando Specialist with HMG

1 * Gruntbot

1 * Ripper Rainmaker

1 * Ripper Mauler

The Mazon Labs force was already deployed on the landing pad and was hotly engaged with multiple groups of Plague Zombies. Lead by Guard Commander Graves they fielded:

1* Guard Commander Graves
3 * Mazon Security Guard

3 * Urbana Black Wing Marine

3 * Urbana Black Wing Ranger Specialist with Thermal Rifle

The Marauder commanders mission was to either wipe out the Mazon Labs forces or reach 15 VP's, as the Zombies are worth zero VP's they would just be getting in the way and we used the AI Zombie rules I'd formulated to control them.

The game started with the Mazon troops mostly concentrating on clearing the closest Zombie packs, not being great in melee they didn't want to let the Zombies get in close. The Marauders mostly pushed forwards and shot at a few Zombies and also opened fire with the HMG Commando on the Mazon troops, wounding one.
In the Zombie turn the one group shambled into Ripper Mauler who managed to take out two of the three attackers but took a wound in the process. We also rolled to place two more groups of Zombies who appeared near the Mazon lines.

A similar pattern was followed over the next couple of turns with the Mazon troops mostly taking shots at close by Zombies though one Specialist did manage to put another two wounds on the Ripper Mauler causing it to flee into the backfield rather than die.

The Marauders split their fire more between the Mazon and the Zombies with the Rainmaker in particular laying down some effective fire on the Mazon and killing several of them. One Mawbeast did manage to die when it charged a lone Zombie, much to it's surprise.

A few turns in I stopped the Zombies from spawning (they had been spawning two groups of three at the end of each turn) to encourage the Marauders to advance and this allowed the Gruntbot and the surviving Mawbeast move up the board. One of the Ranger Specialists also managed to find the single booby-trap on the board but managed to survive both the explosion and the fall that resulted.

As the defenders numbers started to drop the Gruntbot got into action but was largely held by a Security Guard who fought well above her pay grade, the Ranger was however savaged by the remaining Mawbeast. 

Guard Commander Graves pitched into the combat with the Gruntbot but whilst he was able to put two wounds on it in the next the Mawbeast charged in and killed him off.

At this point with the defenders mostly dead and their leader slain the surviving members of the Mazon Labs team scattered, no doubt to become victims for a Zombie horde. 
It had been a hard grinding battle for the Marauders but they had the landing platform they required to supply a proper mission on the planet.

Deadzone: Bits and Bobs

 I've had some Deadzone bits waiting to be painted up for a while so I thought I'd take a little break from League of Infamy and work on them instead.

It's a bit of a mixed bag so along with a vehicle I have some stuff for the Plague & Veer-myn and a Dreadball character I liked the look of.

First up for the Plague is Dr Gayle Simmonds who is a specialist. She may not look much but her 3+ save and Tough special rule mean she will take a lot to kill. Her ranged attack isn't that potent but she can try to Pin with her rifle so she should be able to support the melee troops in a Plague force by knocking over enemy models. Her last ability is heal which allows her to keep models in the fight and makes them (and her) harder to kill with Resilience (1). She looks like a good all-round support model for any force.

The Rat Swarm's can either be purchased or come free with the Piper unique Veer-myn unit. They benefit from being fast and tough with size 2 making them hard to kill in one go. 

The last model is of Flurple who is part of a set of figures for Dreadball, the Mantic sci-fi sports game based on American football. He/it doesn't have any stats for Deadzone but I liked the model so bought it to paint up. I'm sure I will be able to think up some way to add Flurple in as an NPC into a game.

Deadzone doesn't include rules for vehicles but I have an idea for an escort mission including one so I bought the GCPS Mule to use. I've painted it up in the green & purple of my Marauders who are known to have fought both along-side and against the GCPS in the past. The model is a little fiddly to put together with the wheel supports being a bit of a faff, especially as no instructions are included. 

The last thing I made up are a couple of Zombie spawn points for use with the AI Zombie rules I wrote about the other week. These went together very quickly with some body parts from my bits store stuck into some Polyfilla on an MDF base.