Friday 13 February 2015

ATZ Short Stories: Our Boys at the Front, part 2

<==  part 1 is this way

Continued...


As the initial gunfire died down, the situation was this:
  • Team 1 halted the Hummer when they reached the next block.  The lieutenant and his 2 assistants leaped out of the vehicle and turned to face the zombie horde.
    "I want careful, aimed shots only" explained Brosnan.  "Fire at will, but keep it clean.  There's plenty of targets, but they don't move too fast.  We should be able to drop them all before they reach us."
  • Team 2 were still working their way up the road behind the burger bar.  They intended to carry on the mission by searching the garage just ahead of them.
  • Team 3 were crouching low inside the bookstore, waiting for the zombie herd to pass.  They were still looking for Dalton, who had disappeared.  This was because he'd taken a wrong turn and had exited the building through a back door.  He now found himself on some wasteland and was immediately set upon by a nearby zombie!

The garage wasn't clear: team 2 found a single hostile inside.  However, they had no trouble at all in convincing Laura to surrender; she was promptly disarmed, arrested and handcuffed.

Back at the Hummer, Connery and Van Damme were concentrating on shooting at the zombies further down the road, though this wasn't having the effect that they had hoped.  Brosnan's pistol was out of range, so he stood at the back.

Breaking News

All 3 of the soldiers failed initially to notice a small boy zombie approaching them from behind.  However, they were no longer the only people in the area.  The last remaining PEF was resolved as 2 civilians, who turned out to be a news crew (reporter Lynne Gosnett and cameraman Pete Maclennan).  From now on, all that happened would be broadcast on the evening news bulletin!

The very first thing that the camera crew recorded was a small boy zombie approaching the soldiers from behind.  Lieutenant Brosnan must have heard voices or something, for he looked around and sized up the situation quickly.  He drew his combat knife, ran at the child zombie and caved in its skull with several mighty blows.  As the gore sprayed around, Lynne's stomach heaved and her news commentary faltered.

Team 2 (and the prisoner they had arrested) were still making their way through the maze of buildings to the north-east.  For a moment it looked as if their perfect record would be spoilt when they were ambushed by a pair of gunmen.

Ambush: 7 dice and no successes (1-3).
However, the "Drop Your Weapons" test went very badly for the ambushers; they came out holding their hands high before the soldiers had even realised that the gangers were there.  They lost their nerve, I guess.  Team 2 now had 3 prisoners and was running short of plasticuffs...

The "single, aimed shot" policy wasn't working for team 1.  In desperation, they resorted to burst fire in an attempt to thin out the horde of shamblers that was approaching them.

We then drew another random event.  Even though all the original PEFs on the board had been removed, we added a new PEF to the board.  Random placement put it in the crossroads in the centre of the board, which happened at that moment to be unobserved by any of the player characters.

Team 3 (minus Dalton, who was lost and fighting off one zombie after another in the wasteland) had finally crept out of the bookstore and had taken their 2 prisoners back to the truck.  They chained the gangers to the inside and then returned to the main street, just in time to see the new PEF.  It was immediately resolved as another 4 zombies - as if anyone needed that!

By now, there were zombies everywhere!  The news team skedaddled, barely escaping from a zombie that got to within 1" behind them before they could activate.  I suppose they were too intent on filming the scene ahead of them (or, in Lynne's case, too busy heaving her guts up!).

Team 2 ran out of the now-cleared garages to reinforce the command team near the Humvee.  In doing this, they didn't pay much attention to their prisoners, who wandered aimlessly but unscathed through the whole mess.

The remnants of team 3 started to move up the street, using their combat knives to fight off the light opposition near them.

For a moment, it looked as if the extra soldiers might turn the tide, but then Lieutenant Brosnan made a terrible slip.  He ordered his men to cease fire and attack the zombies with knives instead of guns.  Whilst Connery and Van Damme managed to fell their victims, Brosnan missed his stroke against a small girl zombie.  She grabbed his hand and bit a finger off; when the Lieutenant reeled and fell over from the pain, she leaped upon him and tore his face off with her sharp, little teeth.

The resulting "Man Down" test went very badly for the soldiers.  4 of the 5 remaining members of teams 1 & 2 were close enough to see or hear the Lieutenant's screams of anguish and all of them were horrified and stunned into inactivity for at least one turn.  At this critical moment, the zombies advanced again and, meeting no resistance, promptly killed and started to eat both Van Damme and Gibson.  The other 2 squaddies were only saved because all of the zombies had closer targets than each of them.

The 3 prisoners decided that this would be a good moment to split, so they ran off as fast as they could (with their hands still tied behind their backs).

Once they had recovered from their initial horror, Eastwood and Weaver ran for the Humvee.  The zombies were all distracted by their feasting, so they didn't have any trouble in reaching the vehicle.  They waited a moment for Connery to join them, though by this time some of the zombies were beginning to look round in search of fresh prey.

Fortunately for the soldiers, Eastwood managed to start the Humvee on his first try, though his comrades had to fend off some fresh attacks before the vehicle could start to move.

Finally, the Humvee reversed away from the immediate danger, just as team 3 came up the road to assist.  Even the wayward Dalton rejoined team 3, having finally finished off all the zombies that had attacked him one after the other.  Was this the break that the soldiers needed?  Could they turn this around and sweep the area clean?

Another random event occurred, though it wasn't immediately obvious what benefit a Safe Haven would be to the squad.

Once again, the temptation to use their automatic weaponry was too much for most of the soldiers.  After all, there were plenty of targets; perhaps some automatic gunfire could thin out the mob a bit?

Moore had other ideas; he thought that a knife might work better.  He was slightly ahead of his colleagues and had dispatched a zombie successfully, when...

...he found himself cut off and surrounded by the ever-growing numbers of hungry zeds.  Although Moore fought the first one to a standstill and knocked down the second, the third, fourth and fifth zombies overwhelmed him.  Moore vanished beneath a pile of bloodied, clutching arms.

Time for another random event.  Hackman sneezed, though in the heat of the battle no-one else really noticed.  He'd been feeling fine this morning, but had a bit of a sore throat now that he came to think about it.

The Humvee moved forward again as Eastwood hit the accelerator.  He crunched round the corner, barely able to see where he was going because of the zombie corpses already caught on the bonnet of the vehicle.  As it was, the Humvee clipped the feeding frenzy over Moore''s body and sent zombies flying in all directions.

On foot, Hackman and Dalton moved through the park, trying desperately to keep away from the larger groups of zombies.

This time it was Dalton who found himself alone and outnumbered.  Unlike his predecessor, he managed to keep knocking the zombies down so that he never had to face more than 2 or 3 at a time.  For several rounds, he held his own in this manner until Hackman ran over to assist and finish off those zeds that were still moving.

Eastwood, in the Humvee, didn't fancy his chances of manoeuvring the vehicle back on to the road.  "Everybody out!" he commanded.  "Make for the garage - perhaps we can hold them off there!"

The crew disembarked swiftly and ran for the building whilst the zombies from the road smash were still picking themselves up.  [Remember that "Safe House" event earlier?  There was something about the garage that repelled the zombies, for now at least.  Perhaps it was the oil fumes that masked the scent of the men's blood and sweat?  Maybe the zombies had vestigial memories and thought of it as a dangerous place that was unlikely to be a source of food.  Or the light shining off tools, hubcaps and mirrors confused their senses?  Who knows?]

Seeing this, Dalton and Hackman ran to join the rest of the squad.  They closed and barricaded the door and then slumped to the ground, ragged with exhaustion.  As they listened to the moans from the street, they knew that it would be a long night...

Aftermath

This was a disaster, no doubt about it!  4 of the 9 soldiers were dead, 3 of the prisoners had run away and the other 2 were still locked up inside the armoured truck.  Although it probably didn't matter now, some of the worst violence inflicted by (and to) the squad had made it onto the early evening news.

We rolled for the effects of the illness that Hackman had contracted.  He recovered without any ill effects, while none of the other soldiers caught it.  I suppose that's something positive, at least!

24 comments:

  1. Wow ! What an action packed end to the scenario, it must have been very exciting for the players. You can almost feel the tension building as the game continued, but thank goodness for the "safe house", saving what remained of the squad.
    Great read and very entertaining but are you going to continue this scenario and let us know how the squad get on subseuently ? (please, pretty please)

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    1. Thanks, Joe. There wasn't a lot of tactical finesse, was there :-) ? Lots of gunfire and moments of terror, though.

      On continuing the scenario: I hear you and will give it serious consideration.

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  2. What an gun blazing knife slashing (well a little bit) second half! Its amazing how soldiers always seem to make bad choices. Quite cinema like really when you think about it.

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    1. The only real chance they had was to avoid using guns (or vehicles - they make noise too!) except as necessary against other humans. But when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail...

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  3. What rule set is this, and what terrain? Looks great!

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    1. The base rules are ATZ (All Things Zombie) by 2-Hour Wargames. I was using a scenario from the "Haven" expansion to ATZ and the event cards are also non-standard items.

      The terrain is cardboard & foamcore. Most of it is from Worldworks Games, though the burger bar is from Fat Dragon. Vehicles are from the same sources and also from Genet Models and Stoelzel's Structures.

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  4. Great AAR. A lot going on, made for a good read.

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    1. Thanks, Mark - glad you liked it. It was indeed a very busy game!

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    1. Thanks, Gordon. My terrain is beginning to get a bit tattered through use, but it still looks good at a distance.

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  6. Absolute carnage! Great stuff C6, will any of them make it back to base? Superb second half, I don't think anyone was expecting that, I certainly wasn't. Amazing how things can go tits up very quickly.

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    1. It's always the child zombie, isn't it?! One bad set of melee dice and suddenly half the squad is frozen in terror - ATZ is really unpredictable like that (and it's a *good* thing!).

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  7. That is a difficult mission, even for well equipped soldiers. Urban environment, vehicles and auto weapons mean lot of zeds. Good some of them survived. Too bad Van damme didn't make it

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    1. I think that "well-equipped" is the critical phrase here. They were well-equipped - but not for this type of fight!

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  8. Great stuff! I love the carnage and confusion of the battle.
    i would love to see the Soldiers try to leave the safe house...

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    1. It's a real testament to ATZ that there's no such thing as a "safe" move - every action has a risk associated with it.

      I hear you about the soldiers continuing in another game; I'll discuss this with the players (my sons) and ask them what they want to do.

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  9. very funny batrep. good decisions turn bad on a roll of a set of combat dice!!! Got to love atz!!!
    looking forward to more game reports :)

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    1. As I said above, there's a risk with every decision and nothing is completely "safe" :-) .

      I do plan to play more games this year than I did last year (which was very much a low point, I think).

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  10. Superb! One of the best ATZ batreps I have ever read!

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    1. From you, Bryan, that's high praise indeed! Thank you very much; I'm extremely flattered :-) .

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  11. Oh that was corker alright, you must play the next day's action out too..

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    1. Thanks, Dave. Another vote for a continuation, eh?

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  12. The nice looking terrain and miniatures help sell the story you were weaving for this game. Good one! :)

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