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.