7TV2: Eternia Base and the Daleks

Introduction

To my everlasting regret, I've only played 7TV once before (here), though I've played its precursor - the Doctor Who Miniatures Game (DWMG) several times.

The one previous game of 7TV was fun, but it wasn't a total success for two reasons.  Firstly the forces were too small for the table (or if you prefer, the table was too large for the number of figures) and secondly the objectives were too easy to collect very early on (and that took away much of the point of playing the remainder of the game).

Last Thursday, I decided to revisit the game at the Helensburgh games club, but with some adjustments which would hopefully improve the experience.

The Setup

Somewhere in Federation space, on a remote and otherwise uninhabited planet is a top-secret research establishment called "Eternia Base".  There, scientists are conducting dangerous experiments to establish the nature of anti-photons.

A cross-dimensional rift caused by these tests has allowed universes to collide; Davros and a group of xenocidal Daleks have been sucked through.  They would like to take the secret knowledge of Eternia Base for themselves.

However, all is not lost.  Another dimensional traveller (who calls himself "the Doctor") and his assistant have persuaded the nearby starship USS Matakishi to intervene.  Captain Bellamy is leading an away team to try to rescue the scientists and save the base.

Special Rules

This would be a regular 7TV2 battle with 60 ratings per side.  The only alterations that we made to the standard rules were concerning objectives:

1. An objective wouldn't automatically be claimed just by spending a special action.  Rather, the objective would be successfully claimed only if the model making the attempt could pass a Mind test.  Of course, for the Doctor and for Davros (both with a Mind rating of '6') this was just a formality...
2. The central objective is the plasmatron, which splits photons or something like that.  For the heroic side, claiming this objective means that the experiment has been shut down safely; the structure of the base will be saved (even if its inhabitants are overrun by Daleks).  On the other hand, if the evil side claim this objective then they set the experiment to overload and eventually suck the base (and maybe the planet too?) into anti-space.  Either way, once this objective has been claimed the effect cannot be reversed.
3. The other 4 objectives are scientists.  Claiming one of these objectives allows the successful player to add the model to his cast (though note that the scientist's Gadget special effect will be of limited effect: it won't allow any more gadgets to be claimed as that's a pre-game effect only) as well as gaining the usual 2 plot points immediately and 1 victory point at the end of the game.
   Once in play, the opposing player can try to knock out the scientist, or can claim the model for their own cast by following the rules for taking an objective.  In theory, a scientist could change allegiances every turn, as the two sides plead, threaten and trick them!

The Game

At the beginning, the Federation advanced as quickly as they could.  Both the Doctor and Captain Bellamy manage to talk to a scientist and convince them that safety lay in joining the good guys.

In contrast, the Daleks were afflicted by a nasty Countdown Card which effectively restricted them to half speed for a turn.  Since they weren't exactly fast movers to start with, their progress was distinctly sluggish!

Davros took out some of his frustrations by shooting and injuring Brook Aria, the Doctor's plucky assistant.

In their second turn, the Federation advance continued.  The Doctor ran up to the plasmatron, though he didn't have an action left with which to try to defuse it.  Also, the redshirt squad advanced, firing for all they were worth and actually hit one of the Daleks.  [They were shooting at Davros, but he has a 'Sacrifice' special effect which can redirect hits to a nearby friend].  Sadly for them, each Dalek can take 3 hits before succumbing and even worse, this was one of only two times in the entire game where a redshirt hit anything!

However, this single hit did change the results of the game, as you will see...

In one of those "I did not see that coming!" moments, the Daleks then drew a Script Editing countdown card.  There was a weird continuity error as Davros was suddenly next to the plasmatron (and was immediately able to set the device to overload before scuttling back to his own lines)...

...whilst the Doctor found himself in the midst of a bunch of angry Daleks, who proceeded to zap him.  It took all the plot points they had for the Federation side to keep him alive, though injured (and then there was some luck involved as well)!

Never underestimate the Doctor!  On his next turn, he ran up to the red Dalek and did something with his sonic screwdriver, thus adding another wound to the battle machine [he used a "Pen Gun" gadget, but I imagine this was just a setting on his normal device rather than a separate piece of kit].

On the other side of the base, two grey Daleks had tried - and failed - to claim the 3rd scientist/objective.  In a moment of sheer coolness (or perhaps utter madness!), Captain Bellamy transported in and rescued the terrified scientist from under their blasters [in game terms, these Daleks were hit with a Countdown Card which prevented them from activating for a turn and then Captain Bellamy used a "jet pack" gadget to move up for free before claiming the objective and scarpering]!

The Federation wasn't the only side to have gadgets, of course.  One of the Daleks produced a noxious cloud [nerve gas canister] that sent most of the redshirts coughing and reeling; it then exterminated a couple of the hapless humanoids.

Things started to get a bit hectic at this point:

• The Doctor used a disguise kit to prevent the red Dalek from disintegrating him.
• Davros threatened the 4th scientist into submission...
• ...but just as he did this, a Federation shuttlecraft landed nearby and disgorged another squad of redcoats.  Two of them were promptly shot by the grey daleks, sadly.

The other two redcoats brawled with Davros, but had no effect whatsoever [honestly, they'd have done better to stand back and shoot him - though even that probably wouldn't have achieved much].  Fortunately for the heroic side, the Doctor was having a much better turn:

• A Countdown Card allowed him to retrieve a gadget; the Doctor re-tuned his sonic screwdriver and inflicted the 3rd & final wound needed to destroy the red Dalek [with the same "Pen Gun" gadget as he had used before].  One down, four to go.
• To cap this, the Doctor also persuaded the scientist that he didn't want to follow Davros after all...

So at this point, all four scientist objectives had been claimed by the Federation/heroic side - though the Daleks had set the plasmatron into irreversible meltdown.

Right, time to leave!  The Doctor and his new scientist ally ran from the enraged Davros, whilst the shuttle relocated to the centre of the table to pick up Captain Bellamy, his scientist and a stray redshirt.

The evil side wasn't going to take this lying down.  Only one grey Dalek was in range of the shuttle, but it hit the craft squarely and inflicted heavy damage [i.e. 2 of the shuttle's 3 damage points were gone].  However, if that was the worst they could do then it looked as if the heroes might escape after all...

...but the Daleks chose this moment to Steal the Scene and take a double turn.  All the Daleks that were at all close converged on the shuttle; it was rocked as bolt after bolt hit it.  The Federation side was all out of plot points and so there was nothing they could do except hold on and hope for the best.

Amazingly, the shuttle's armour [shields?] held.  It made every single saving throw needed and then flew off into the sunset with its precious cargo!

There goes my armed astronaut!

 The Daleks' fury was intense!  They spent the last turn or two shooting down anything that moved.

I spent my last four plot points trying to save this scientist!  Didn't work, though...

Another redshirt bites the dust.

I had spent all my remaining plot points trying to save the last fleeing scientist, forgetting that the Doctor was also threatened.  A single hit would knock him out easily, but this time the rolls went against the Daleks and the Doctor survived & escaped.

At this point, the Countdown Cards ran out and the game ended.  Whew!

Victory

At the end of the game, after the Daleks' last minute shooting spree, the Federation cast was axed.  The Doctor, Brook Aria and one scientist had escaped on foot, Captain Bellamy, a redshirt and a second scientist had escaped in the shuttle and another two redshirts were still on the table - but all the rest were dead.  +1VP to the Daleks for axing the opposition.

Against this, the Federation had possession of 2 objectives/scientists.  +2VP to the Federation.

Hmm, Davros set the plasmatron objective to overload: +1VP to the Daleks.

So far, that's a tie at 2VP each.  However, we need to add in the points for cast members killed.  Nothing for extras (for which the Federation were extremely grateful), but +3VP to the Federation for destroying an enemy co-star (the red Dalek).

The final tally:

• Evil side (Davros and the Daleks): 2VP
• Heroic side (the Doctor/Federation): 5VP

So, who'd have thought it?  The Federation won; even though virtually all their shots had no effect at all, the destruction of the red dalek was the key!

Conclusion

Well, that was a thrilling game and no mistake!  There were so many moments where it could have turned - Davros swapping places with the Doctor was a masterstroke, the Doctor seemed like a goner in the midst of his enemies but somehow survived, the Daleks were all but invincible, the shuttle's escape under fire was very cinematic...and so on.

Both players enjoyed the game tremendously.  A number of other attendees at the games club wandered by during the evening to try to figure out what was going (there were mutterings such as "there are Daleks - but that looks like Star Trek?!", though nobody actually asked).  From this, I anticipate that there's plenty of latent interest in 7TV - even if many of the club members don't yet realise it 😃.

We'll be back...

EXTERMINATE !

Introduction

One of my many gaming interests is Doctor Who, mainly inspired by the free Doctor Who Miniatures Game (DWMG).  As an aside, DWMG is a precursor to Crooked Dice's very popular 7TV and related games, so if you're considering buying 7TV and want a tester first then this is worth a look.

So, within my Doctor Who collection I have a fair number of 28mm U.N.I.T. soldiers (1970s uniforms and weapons, not current) as well as various forces of aliens including Sontarans, Cybermen, Sea Devils and the Family of Blood.  However, I could hardly write my first post on Doctor Who models without showing everyone's favourite adversaries: the Daleks!

Black Tree Design

These 5 models are metal models from Black Tree Design.  Once upon a time, BTD had a very bad reputation for customer service, but by all accounts that has changed dramatically over the past few years and I've never had any problems when ordering from them.  They still have by far the largest range of wargaming-scale Doctor Who models of any manufacturer, though their models are firmly based in on the 1st to 8th Doctors (i.e. up to the Paul McGann movie of 1996, but not including any of the newer BBC TV series).  By all accounts, BTD haven't had a license to cast new models for many years, but they do seem to have a lot of old stock lying around and most of the range is still available!

Micro Universe

In contrast, here are 2 models from the short-lived Micro Universe series; an engineer and a regular dalek.  These were pre-painted soft plastic models (something like Heroclix), but the range was quite small and some of the models in it were a bit obscure.  Still, they did some nice daleks.

Note that I've rebased these; the models originally came on simple black bases with stats for the (very poor) Micro Universe game printed on the underside.  I collected a lot of the Micro Universe models when they were available, though since they came in semi-random packaging I didn't always get enough of some things I really wanted.

Comparison

Micro Universe on the left, Black Tree Design in the centre and right.

This is a simple comparison shot; it shows that the Micro universe and Black Tree Design models are very close in size.  There are differences in the details, but I'm not at all bothered by those and I'd happily mix these models in the same game.

Also in this shot is my model of Davros, the inventor and sometime leader of the daleks.  He's got to be one of the creepiest Doctor Who villains of all time, I think!

i-Dalek

iDalek on the left, "classic" dalek on the right

In some of the most recent Doctor Who episodes, a re-styled Dalek model has appeared; they are known as "iDaleks" to fans.  Hard plastic models of these have been available as "free gifts" with some issues of the British children's magazine "Doctor Who Adventures".  They've appeared more than once, so I suppose that the iDalek models might reappear at any time as long as the magazine is still running...

As you can see from the picture, the iDalek is quite a bit larger than the classic model (and remember that unlike the painted model, the iDalek isn't on a base).  This is appropriate for the TV show, as the newer design was easily the height of a man whereas the older version was rather shorter.

Finally

This my collection of spare Doctor Who models, just as they came out of the packets.  None of these are based or painted by me, though some of the pre-paints could be used in a game just as they are.  I think that all of these models are either Micro Universe or have come from Doctor Who Adventures magazine, though some of the latter are very crude and are hardly more than blobs of plastic.

Note the iDaleks in the centre-top and classic Daleks bottom left.  I hope I've got enough!

There is another dalek model available in this scale; some of them can (just) be seen in the top, centre-left compartment, in gold-coloured plastic.  These were also hard plastic toys that came with Doctor Who Adventures, but the detail on them was quite soft and the weapon and "plunger" arms were very thick indeed.  However, the size is quite compatible with the other "classic" dalek models.  I'm still debating whether they're worth painting and basing or not.

The strange events at Chessex-under-Wold

Introduction

I was at a bit of a loss as to which game I should host at the Helensburgh Club this week.  I like to rotate through my "stable" of rule-sets, but several of the more popular ones have had an outing quite recently and so they were out of consideration.  I've got reasons for holding off on running All Things Zombie and Full Thrust (all will be revealed in due course), so they were out too.  So, it was time to crack open the Doctor Who Miniatures Game (DWMG) again!  [Please don't interpret this the wrong way: DWMG is a fine game, but the subject matter doesn't lend itself well to the large, multi-player games which I  provide at the club].

Scenario

Some time in the 1970s, the Daleks hatched yet another nefarious plan to conquer rural England.  This time, success would depend on capturing a number of humans, in order to analyse their DNA and do some horrible genetic experiments on them.  To this end, the aliens selected the sleepy village of Chessex-under-Wold as their target; a snatch squad would surround the village and harvest the locals!

Forces:

• Monster: 6 daleks (1 supreme [black], 1 sub-commander [red], 4 warriors/drones [grey]), plus 3 pig slaves.  Actually, I would have used a lot more pig slaves if I'd had the models.  Although either daleks or slaves can capture humans, only the slaves can run; the daleks are somewhat slower than a human.
• Villagers: 10 civilians.  These are controlled by the Good players, but are a separate force as far as leadership is concerned (i.e. they cannot be led by other Good models).  None of the civilians is a leader.
• Good: Initially, there are no Good forces on the board.  However, the player may roll at the start of each turn for reinforcements, needing a '1' on turn 1, a '1-2' on turn 2 and so on (though a '6' is always a failure).  Once it is determined that a reinforcement is due, roll to see what arrives:

1. Tardis, Doctor, 2 companions
2. UNIT truck, Brigadier, 4 troopers
3. UNIT truck, Captain, 4 troopers
4. UNIT truck, Sergeant, bazooka team, 3 troopers
5. UNIT truck + MMG, 5 troopers
6. UNIT truck, LMG team, 3 troopers

Special Rules

Another quiet day in Chessex-under-Wold.  The squire argues with some tennants, a schoolmaster leads a small field study group and a very rich little girl is escorted home from a party by her 2 nannies.

• Villagers start in the centre of the village.  They may not voluntarily move closer to a visible enemy.
• Monster forces may start anywhere along the table edges.
• If selected as a reinforcement, the Tardis may be placed anywhere on the table.  All enemies within 12" of this point must immediately take a morale test (and flee for 1 turn if they fail).
• UNIT reinforcements may enter along either end of the road.
• The Daleks are a medium-tech (1970s?) version; they have high defence and dalekanium armour, but no force fields.  They're still plenty tough, mind!

 The Game

The monster player chose to approach the village along the road, entering equal forces from each end.  A lone pig slave came in from the north, to prevent any villagers from escaping in that direction.  Initially, the daleks moved quite slowly, but the pigs ran in from all directions as fast as they could.

The appalled civilians streamed south out of the village, away from the horrible alien menace, but closely pursued by the 2 nearest pig slaves.  Indeed, these monsters had just reached their first 2 intended victims and were about to attack them...

...when the good players revealed a "Behind the Sofa" random event card.  They rolled a '2' for the number of models and used this to move both the threatened civilians out of the clutches of the pigs!

However, with the pig slaves behind them and daleks approaching from both sides, it didn't look as if this would be more than a temporary reprieve for the villagers.

Indeed, a pig slave soon grabbed hold of one of the schoolboys.  Another slave attempted to subdue the squire, but the desperate man managed to break free.  Then, with an EERrwWwoooSHHhEERrwWwoooSHHhEERrwWwoooSHHh sound, a blue Police Box materialised nearby.

One pig slave and one dalek drone fled in terror from the unearthly noise, but the rest of the monsters held their ground.  From the Tardis, a young woman (Amy) ran towards the villagers.  One of the pig slaves immediately pursued, but couldn't quite capture her.

Then, more leisurely, the Doctor and his robot dog, K-9, stepped out of the machine - only to find that he was surrounded by angry monsters!

Rather than be shot by 3 daleks, the Good side played another event card.  They used the "Dodgy Prop" to move the Tardis...

...so that it blocked the line of sight for 2 of the monsters.  The 3rd dalek fired at the doctor and missed, though K-9 took some damage from the drone.  The tin dog still managed to move and shoot dead the pig slave who was pursuing Amy!

The captive boy was nearly off the board, held firmly by a pig slave and escorted by a grey dalek, when UNIT forces finally arrived.  A truck fitted with an MMG drove off the road towards the monsters.  The gunner hosed the grey dalek with .50 calibre bullets; this was too much for the alien's armour and it disintegrated.  At the same time, a couple of troopers dismounted to try to save the boy, but they were too far away and the pig slave would certainly reach the edge of the board in its next turn.

However, the good side weren't so easily beaten.  They played their 3rd and last event card and used it to make one of the UNIT troopers "Run" into close combat with the pig slave.  The annoyed creature immediately had to release its captive so that it could defend itself!

Elsewhere, K-9 went head-to-head with a dalek drone at close range.  The little dog fired his small nose laser and used up all his luck points trying to hit the target.  Sadly, he failed to injure the warrior; in return it blasted K-9 to bits.

The Doctor ran for his life.  He managed to temporarily scramble the circuits in one dalek's battlesuit, but he had to use up a lot of his luck points to avoid taking serious damage from the others.

By this time, the Black dalek was taking an interest in the annoying UNIT troopers to the east.  The temporarily-captured schoolboy had long since fled, so the dalek leader fired into the growing melee between the pig slave and 2 UNIT men [the good side wouldn't dream of shooting into a melee, in case they hit their friends.  However, a dalek wouldn't worry about such a thing!].  The blaster shots vapourised the pig slave and one of the troopers, then the monster player used a "Killing Spree" event card to fire again and finish off the remaining soldier.

A second UNIT truck loaded with reinforcements arrived.  It pulled in next to the first one, running over the 3rd and last pig slave as it did so.  The first truck's MMG fired at the stunned grey dalek; even though the range was long, it cut down the alien (somewhat against the odds, it has to be said!).

To the monster player's complete disgust, the turn ended with a single UNIT trooper aiming his rifle at the sub-commander dalek.  Despite the extreme range, the incredibly lucky soldier hit his target, penetrated its armour and caused enough damage to destroy it.  Scratch one red dalek!

This left the monster player just the black dalek supreme and 2 grey drones.  One of the drones was still in the village's main street, but the other was pursuing the villagers, near to the river bank.  It wasn't close enough to capture any, so it shot one person dead before being recalled by its leader to deal with the ever-increasing numbers of UNIT soldiers.

UNIT were now feeling quite confident.  After all, they'd already destroyed 3 daleks (and run over a pig slave).  All the troopers who could now opened fire on the black dalek.  This had absolutely no effect; every bullet either missed or just bounced off, leaving the bored monster unscratched.

The dalek supreme might have been forgiven for being cocky, but UNIT weren't done yet.  A bazooka team leaped from out of their 4th and last truck.  Taking only a moment to steady himself, the operator fired his rocket at the monster and achieved a direct hit.  He then rolled a '6' for the number of damage points; the dalek's leader exploded violently!

The nearby drone avenged his leader by killing 1 member of the bazooka team, though not before the weapon had been reloaded.  Quickly, the gunner fired again and scored a direct hit: another dalek destroyed!

The end of the game saw the last remaining dalek trundling along the road, while UNIT prepared an ambush from behind the last house in the now-deserted village.  I'm guessing that the humans probably had enough firepower to take out the monster, though not necessarily without cost.

Conclusion

 So, who won?  Here are the standings:

• Monster: 5 out of 6 daleks destroyed, all 3 pig slaves lost.  No captives.
• Villagers: 1 civilian shot and killed.  All the rest thoroughly traumatised; taken to a UNIT facility for debriefing (and memory redaction?)
• UNIT: 3 soldiers lost.  Several troopers in line for some serious medals!
• The Doctor: Both the Doctor and Amy were injured.  K-9 was destroyed (though he could be rebuilt?).

The daleks spent a lot of their mid-game effort trying to kill the Doctor and his companions.  They managed to strip their targets of all their luck points and then inflict injuries.  However, ultimately this distracted the monsters from either capturing civilians or fighting back against UNIT.  The vendetta was their downfall, I think!

The Three Doctors. Who?

Introduction

Long before I started this blog, we sometimes played the Doctor Who Miniatures Game (DWMG) at my local games club in Helensburgh.  Each time we did this, I always felt that it hadn't worked quite as well as I had wished.  This is in no way a fault of the rules, but rather because most of the published scenarios are for small forces and therefore are not really suitable for the 6 or more players typically wishing to participate in my games.

Eventually, succumbing to pressure from my son and others, I revisited this.  I remembered a very grand scenario, designed for conventions: "The Five Doctors".  Now this is a bit beyond my resources, requiring as it does a large tower, cliffs with caves, mountains with traversing ropes, 5 doctors plus assorted gamesmaster-controlled monsters and so on.  However, maybe I could take the basic concept and adapt it to my needs...

The Scenario

The Master is up to his old tricks again.  Somehow he's got hold of a device that is scooping random groups of aliens from all over time and space and depositing these creatures in a desolate, icy, ruined city.  Why?  I don't know - maybe he just likes to mess with things?  Anyway, amongst the groups thus displaced are 3 incarnations of the Doctor, each with some companions.

• The Master is at the centre of the table, very much in control of events.  To fly away with the Tardis, one of the Doctors must approach him and win an opposed intelligence test.  No companions are allowed for this challenge; the Master automatically hypnotises them into inaction when they come close.
• To get to the Master, a team must deactivate one of the force fields.  This requires an intelligence test with a -6 modifier.  Each scientist companion present gives a bonus of +2 to whoever is taking the test.
• Each force field is assigned a colour.  Scattered around the table are a number of face-down clues, most of which have a coloured dot on them.  For each matching clue held by a team, a bonus of +2 is granted when trying to deactivate the matching force field.
• A few of the "clues" are marked as encounters with monsters, rather than coloured dots.
• The Angels are just statues (i.e. they're not monsters) - but the players don't know that.  Ain't I a stinker?!  They cannot be activated or damaged in any way.
• I didn't have a single game mat large enough for my plans, so there is a snow field to the west of the ruins; the remainder of the terrain is arid.
• There are 3 locations where supplies are present and inventions may be attempted: the hut to the east, the pile of crates to the west and the cockpit of the crashed spacecraft to the north.
• Each team would be dealt 3 random event cards, as per normal in DWMG.

The Forces

 The players were divided into 3 teams.  Each team would take 1 doctor (plus some companions) and would be in charge of one group of monsters.  They could use these monsters to confound the other Doctors or to aid their own (i.e. by attacking the other teams' monsters).  The only restriction was that the various Doctors and companions may not attack each other.  So:

Team Pertwee consisted of the 3rd Doctor, Jo Grant (a screamer) and K-9 (the robot dog).  They also had control of 3 cybermen on the opposite side of the board.

Team Smith had the 11th Doctor and a couple of UNIT soldiers.  They had 2 daleks with which to terrify the opposition.

Team Tennant was made up from the 10th Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith (screamer) and Adric, the boy wonder (scientist).  This group controlled 3 Sontarans.

The Game: At The Beginning

In early moves, Team Pertwee were chased around the snowfields by daleks on one side and Sontarans on the other.  Although neither set of monsters could get a clear shot at the good guys, they did prevent them from making any progress.

Eventually the daleks lost interest and moved off to chase Team Tennant instead.  The Sontarans thought they had finally caught the 3rd doctor in the open, but Team Pertwee played a devastating Booby Trap card which stunned all 3 of the short aliens.

Team Smith had split up to search for clues (and isn't that such a cliché!).  The Doctor was investigating the crashed spacecraft when one of the UNIT troopers discovered what happens if a clue card doesn't have a coloured spot on the reverse.  In this case, he disturbed a giant wasp!

Meanwhile, Team Tennant had been merrily collecting clues, quite unthreatened by anything.  Sadly for them, they just couldn't find matching sets.  By the end they had collected exactly one clue for each of the 4 possible colours.
Eventually the 2 daleks managed to get in range of Sarah Jane and opened fire.  They would probably have hit too, but Team Tennant avoided that by playing a Wildly Inaccurate card at an opportune moment.

Team Tennant then ran for the shed.  The daleks followed, though at a slower pace.

The Middle Game

In the snowy ruins, the first clue that Team Pertwee investigated turned out to be a giant wasp attack.  Fortunately for them, the insect chose to attack K-9, who could at least fight back with his nose laser.    Even when the stunned Sontarans started to recover from the booby trap and approach the team, Jo and the 3rd Doctor refused to leave the tin dog even though they were not really able to assist in the fight.

Team Smith's trooper used a Dazed & Confused card to escape from the wasp that he was facing.  In true Doctor Who style, he and his companion then fired repeatedly at the beast without managing to inflict any damage on it.

At about the same time, the 10th Doctor and Adric (Team Tennant) entered the shed to look for items with which to invent something.  It looked as if it might be a close-run thing, as the daleks were approaching steadily.  Sarah Jane stayed outside, hoping to lead them away by using her monster magnet ability, if necessary.

The previously dormant cybermen suddenly decided to make a move; they approached the 11th Doctor from behind, whilst he was working.  A quick Behind the Sofa event card moved them all 2" further away than they had been - which meant that they were not in range after all!

Much to his annoyance, the 10th Doctor was also moved 2" by the same event card.  This took him right out of the shed where his invention had been progressing steadily and into open sight of the approaching daleks!

He dived back into the building just in time to avoid being shot.  Fortunately for Team Tennant, the daleks decided that it was vital to their plans to capture Sarah Jane in preference to any other activity.  The Monster Magnet ability has rarely been so useful - had it failed, all the daleks had to do was wait at the shed door!

Team Pertwee was still in trouble, watching K-9 fight the wasp.  After a number of rounds of shooting, the 2 Sontarans who had recovered from the booby trap managed to hit Jo Grant.  She had to use 2 of her luck points just to stay alive, but still took a wound.  This finally spurred K-9 into using some of his own luck to kill the wasp.

The UNIT troopers from Team Smith had found a couple of green clues, but then one of them ran into another wasp.  This time, a single accurate, aimed shot from his companion was enough to dispatch the beastie.  Quite surprising for an unnamed character!

Inventions

Both Team Tennant (working in the shed) and Team Smith (in the wrecked spacecraft) now came up with inventions.  Oddly enough, they both identified the Achilles heel in the plans of a group of monsters!

The 10th Doctor (Team Tennant) discovered a hole in the dalek's plan: they were relying on an old spatial coordinator to report their progress to their leader.  This vulnerability was placed near the edge of the board, where the cybermen promptly pounced on it.  From now on, the daleks would be demoralised and would require a morale test (at -1) in order to perform any action!

Over in the ruined spacecraft, the 11th Doctor (Team Smith) discovered that the cybermen had intended to steal the tardis itself.  The token for their vulnerability was placed beside the blue box and was therefore inside the force field.  Cunningly, the cybermen had managed to adjust the token's position so that nobody could reach it (unless they had virtually won the game, that is)!

The End Game

Sarah Jane (Team Tennant) had spent much of the game running from the lovelorn (?!) daleks.  They were not fast enough to catch up, but hadn't given up their intent to capture her.  Eventually, though, she ran into another giant wasp.

For a moment, it looked touch and go for the small woman.  The daleks were approaching from the rear, cybermen from ahead and the wasp was buzzing furiously and trying to sting her.  However, all ended well for Sarah Jane when the cybermen tried to shoot her.  She used 1 point of luck to shift the only successful shot from herself onto the wasp, which was promptly fried by the blaster hit!

The 11th Doctor made it up to the force field, on the green-coded side.  He already had 1 green clue and the second UNIT soldier was bringing another, so the chances looked good for Team Smith's next turn when they would attempt to deactivate the barrier.

Seeing this, all of Team Tennant raced up to the yellow-coded force field.  Luckily for them, the 10th Doctor had a spare action left after his move.  Despite having only 1 yellow clue, Adric's scientist bonus gave the Doctor the advantage he needed to switch off the force field.

The cybermen were now the only hope of stopping either team from challenging the Master.  They moved into range of Team Tennant and opened fire - but missed with all their shots!

Team Smith managed to drop the green force field and the UNIT troopers rushed in to disrupt the cybermen's plans (by finding their Achilles Heel token)...

...but it was too late.  The 10th Doctor stepped forward to challenge the Master.  In a dazzling display of wit and cunning, he persuaded the evil mastermind to step aside and relinquish the tardis.  Team Tennant had won the game, thus conclusively proving the superiority of the 10th Doctor beyond dispute!

Epilogue

And what of Team Pertwee?  The 3rd Doctor and K-9 were still assisting the wounded Jo Grant through the ruins, pursued doggedly by 2 Sontaran warriors (the 3rd one never did regain consciousness after the booby trap).  Occasionally the Sontarans would have a clear line of sight, but the odd long range shot only managed to scratch K-9's paintwork.