5150: The Deserted Base

Introduction

On the remote planet of Tantalus III, contact has been lost with a remote scientific base.  A reconnaissance aircraft that was sent to overfly the area has crashed nearby, for reasons unknown.  Finally, the Viridian Planetary Defence Force has ordered in some infantry to investigate and secure the area.  Of course, resources are tight and so the PDF are a mixture of regular grunts and unenthusiastic militia.  I'm sure that most 18+ readers can guess where this is going...

Setup

The base consists of a number of huts surrounded by a perimeter fence.  There's also a big pile of supplies near the gate.  The fence is breached in at least one location, though there is no sign of life anywhere.

The PDF have to investigate each hut for survivors or other evidence and then return the way they came in order to report their findings to higher authorities.  For some reason, there's a lot of interference with their communication equipment near the base.

On the approach road, the PDF have 1 squad of regulars (camouflage trousers, with a missile launcher) and 1 squad of militia (green trousers, with a chaingun).  They also have a Valkyrie-class light scout walker.

Making their way through the wreckage of the reconnaissance craft to the right are 3 more squads (2 regular with a single chaingun and 1 militia with a grenade launcher).

The Game

 Everything was quiet as the PDF squads started to move through the hole in the perimeter fence.

This was the point where a small swarm of bugs erupted from a tunnel near to the first building.  Immediately, the creatures raced round the corner and straight towards the troopers.

The front squad managed to gun down a few of the bugs as they approached, but not enough to avoid being assaulted by 8' long chitinous monsters!  One trooper fell immediately, torn apart by the ferocity of the attack.  However the other 2 (the squad leader and the blonde chain-gunner) both held their own, even when faced by 2 bugs at once.

Rather than get involved in the fracas at the fence breach, the militia squad from the left ran sideways "to help open the gates".

Once inside the base, the 3 squads from the gates fanned out and started to search all the buildings (a good Scooby Doo moment: "let's split up and look for clues").  They spent much of the rest of the game doing this, but without finding anything of interest.

Meanwhile...

At the breach, the second squad of regulars couldn't fire into the melee without risking hitting their comrades.  Instead, they decide to charge into hand-to-hand combat (!).  Even though the humans outnumbered the bugs 5 to 3, the troopers kept losing every fight.  Fortunately, for some reason, the bugs only managed to knock down the soldiers instead of slaughtering them, time after time.

At one point, it even looked as if the humans were winning.  Blonde chain-gunner managed to pick herself up off the dirt and kill the bug that was attacking her, just as the remains of the second squad knocked down their opponent.

Yep, she's still going.  Blondie tried to save a colleague by charging into yet another melee, but ended up facing the last bug on her own.

Just then, another group of bugs erupted from beside the road, just outside the base.  The Valkyrie pivoted on the spot and started hosing the swarm with its vulcan cannon.

In this, it was aided by one squad of militia, though their fire was more noise than substance.  In particular their grenade launcher guy, who could have made a huge difference if he'd hit the tightly-packed bugs, managed to hit just about every other piece of scenery apart from where he was aiming!

Once the bugs closed with the walker, there was little it could do to prevent the creatures from clambering all over it, tearing out cables and jamming moving parts.  A few critters fell off and were crushed as they climbed the machine, but most were nimble enough to cling on.

Within moments, the machine suffered multiple systems checks (requiring a turn of activation to reset before it could do anything) and the motors in one of its legs were badly damaged (so it had difficulty in moving).  Although the crew were safe inside the armoured cabin for the moment, it was only a matter of time before the bugs would strip the machine of all its working parts.

Finally...

A third bug hole appeared, this time in the middle of the base.  This swarm was much bigger than the previous two and it should have been obvious to any observer that the remaining humans had no chance at all if they stayed.

The humans were jubilant as the squad with the missile launcher managed to land a round right in the middle of the new swarm, killing or knocking down 7 enemies.  There were lots of (metaphorical) high-fives and "oorah"s from the soldiers.  The bug player just shrugged and ate them up anyway.

The final scene, as groups of bugs hunted down the last few PDF soldiers, was not a pretty one.  Some of the militia tried to run for shelter inside a hut, but didn't quite make it to the door before the swarm caught up with them.  No-one lived to tell the tale!

Moral

For anyone who thinks that this all seems very familiar, I did run a somewhat similar game some time ago: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2012/11/5150-installing-acoustic-sensor-net.html.  In both games, the players stuck to their assigned objectives way past the point where they might have realised how impossible they were.  Sometimes you have to know when to run away!

The next time I bring the Viridian PDF to the games club, I think I'll have a completely different set of enemies (or maybe none at all!).  The players will be so fearful of "bugs" that they'll not even consider any other possibilities.  Mua-hah-ha-ha!

ATZ Game 11 (part 2): Camp Medomak

Introduction

Last week, in our club game of All Things Zombie, some of the survivors reached Camp Medomak - an old military base currently being used for refugees.  The civilians and their remaining National Guard escorts had barely entered the camp before it was attacked, initially by crazed gangsters and then by zombies, attracted by the noise.  However, our 2 hours at the venue were up before the scenario was concluded.

Normally, I run a different game each week at the club, just for variety.  However, this week I decided that we had to find out what happened next, so we set up the same table and proceeded to play out the remainder of the interrupted game.

The Situation

For those who cannot remember, or who haven't already read part 1, here's how it stands.  In the wrecked gate to the camp is the burning remains of the gangsters' truck.  Corporal Van Damme has taken an armoured personnel carrier from the vehicle park and is trying to turn it towards the wreck.  Other soldiers are running about all around the base (and outside it!).  Since Major Brosnan was shot dead in the previous game and since Sergeant Costner and Corporal Van Damme haven't stepped up to the mark, the troops are effectively leaderless.  Of the newly arrived civilians, John, Darcy and Lizzie are doing what they can to help, first by fighting a fire in the furthest hut, then by moving to the fence line.  Finally, Edna is still looking for a nice cup of tea in the administration block.

What Happened Next

Almost immediately, a large group of zombies arrived at the north part of the fence.  This fence was already slightly damaged from attacks in the previous episode, so the arrival of such a large number of attackers didn't bode well!

The mob of zombies at the north end of the fence looked very intimidating!  However, poor activation rolls meant that they didn't move very much.  Between Norris's enthusiastic firing of his minigun and John and Darcy's careful, aimed pistol shots, the numbers were quickly reduced and the pile of bodies against the fence grew and grew.  Darcy, at REP 5 and with the marksman ability seemed like he just couldn't miss.  Lizzie, on the other hand, was having a very bad day and barely hit any of the attackers with her pistol.

Elsewhere

Meanwhile, in the south, various soldiers took potshots at a little girl zombie in a blue dress (marked with a '*' on the large picture above).  She unsettled them by just standing there, as if waiting for something.  3 times she was hit by bullets and knocked down, but each time she just stood up again.  Creepy!

The pair of soldiers stationed at the southern corner of the base finally managed to destroy the girl zombie.
By that time, other shamblers had reached the fence and were tearing at it with their bare hands, trying to break through.  The fence was holding, for now, but these were ordinary troopers and not hero survivors; they weren't hitting many targets and the number of zombies was increasing slowly.

As if this wasn't bad enough, a large group of refugees now burst out of the trees to the east.  Presumably they were looking for a safe haven, but their mood was ugly and their anger was directed against the government forces.

In response, Corporal Van Damme drove his APC at the burning pickup truck; the big army vehicle shunted the wreckage out of the gateway without much trouble.

Trooper Dalton was still outside the camp at this point.  He saw the flaming wreck coming towards him and ran in the other direction.  This attracted the attention of some of the zombies on the main road; Dalton then fled into the woods with these creatures trailing some distance behind.

The soldiers at the gate fired on the rioters to dissuade them from approaching any closer.  Although their aim was appalling, the mob hesitated as one of their number fell, wounded.  However, it was the sight of the large armoured vehicle approaching that caused them to break and scatter.

"Run, little people, run!  Run all you like" whispered Van Damme to himself as he drove the APC into the midst of the fleeing crowd.  A few of the panicking civilians were able to dodge out of the way, but others were not so lucky and were crushed remorselessly under the huge wheels!

Finale

Reinforcements, in the shape of Darcy and more soldiers, raced to the threatened southern corner.  There, the pendulum swung as careful, placed shots wiped out most of the attackers.

...while back at the north end, John and Lizzie were left to finish up.

Finally, after running about from one part of the base to another all game, Sergeant Costner had found another trooper to drive the GPV for him.  They parked it in the ruined gateway and the sergeant used the vehicle's .50 calibre machine gun to wipe out zombies at long range.

Conclusion

Technically, the ATZ Haven: Safe Zone game isn't finished (because we haven't seen some of the '*'-marked encounters).  However, it's a very busy scenario and we've already spent 2 sessions on this game; I decided to call it.

So, let's see.  The rioting mob is well and truly dispersed and running for their lives.  There are still zombies on the board, but some of them are chasing Dalton through the woods and others are attracted to the fleeing refugees.  Of the few that are actively attacking the base, none really have any chance of breaking in.  The fence is sagging a bit at 2 points, but still has some way to go before being breached.

I'd say that overall there are no credible threats remaining on the board.  Most of the troops and all of the civilians have survived (I don't know if we'll see Dalton again and Van Damme apparently plans to just keep on driving), so I'm ruling this a successful defence of the camp!

We didn't roll for REP advancement on the day, since time was too short and we had to pack up.  That'll have to wait for another occasion.

ATZ Game 11: Camp Medomak

Introduction

We last saw John the photographer and his comrades in Game 8: Breakdown.  Games 7, 9 and 10 have been following the exploits of the other group, led by Bomber and separated from John during a zombie attack during game 6.  That's all clear, isn't it?

In "Breakdown", the military convoy which was evacuating John and his comrades was attacked by rioters whilst halted to change a punctured tyre.  The party barely escaped, crammed into a single General Purpose Vehicle (GPV) and with wounded soldiers on board.  Indeed, they fled so precipitously that they left the wounded Lieutenant Costner for dead, as well as the obviously dead Abe and his mobility chair.

The Scenario

Camp Medomak is an old, low security National Guard base.  The facility is located out in the woods, though not far from the city.  It's from there that teams of soldiers have been sent out to evacuate civilians from threatened areas, with mixed success.

I'm using the Safe Zone scenario from the ATZ: Haven book, slightly adapted to suit my needs.  The first change I've made is to the terrain & setup, since I have fences and quonset huts in my collection rather than a 10' wall with firesteps.  Next, I need to have the survivors' GPV approach the camp, looking for refuge.  Finally, I'll just use whatever soldiers I have in my collection rather than sticking to the letter of the setup from the scenario book.  I'll leave out the guys with the rocket launcher, auto-cannon and other inappropriately heavy weapons, though.

The Characters

In the GPV are crammed the following people:

• John: REP 6 survivalist with pistol and camera.  Also with Laddie, REP 2 collie dog.
• Darcy and Lizzie: REP 5 married survivalists, each with a pistol.
• Edna, the crazy cat lady: REP 2 elderly citizen.  She is always surrounded by cats, though these act as a special distraction rule in melee rather than being represented by independent models.
• Corporal Van Damme: REP 4 soldier, assault rifle
• Connery: REP 4 soldier, badly injured and unconscious
• Dalton: REP 3 soldier, assault rifle
• Eastwood: REP 3 soldier, assault rifle, lightly injured

 At the base, these soldiers are on guard at the gate:

• Weaver: REP 4 soldier, assault rifle
• Hackman: REP 4 soldier, assault rifle
• Mitchum: REP 4 soldier, BAP

Patrolling the fence line are:

• Moore: REP 4 soldier, BAP
• Norris: REP 4 soldier, minigun (targets: 4, impact: 4)

While in the office building are:

• Major Brosnan: REP 4 soldier, BAP
• Sergeant Costner: REP 4 soldier, BAP (no relation to Lieutenant Costner who was left for dead in game 8)

The Game

As the GPV approached slowly, all the sentries clustered around the gates to the camp.  Major Brosnan came out of the office to see what was going on.  "Open up!" he ordered.  "It's one of ours."  But where was the rest of the convoy, he wondered?

The instant the GPV was inside, the soldiers shut the gate.  This was not a moment too soon, as a beat-up pickup truck and a black sedan approached along the same dirt track.  Even at a distance, the camp's inhabitants could see that there were rough-looking armed men in the back of the truck.  "Now, what do they want?" mused Brosnan.  "Look sharp, guys!  I don't want trouble, but be prepared just in case."

The troopers barely had time to think before the pickup truck accelerated and rammed the gate.  Truly, these gangers must have been completely desperate!

Curly, the gang's leader, fired his shotgun at the nearest figure (Major Brosnan) and cut him down.  In retaliation, the remaining soldiers fired liberally at the vehicle and its occupants.  Several of the passengers were hit, then the minigunner opened up.  His shots tore the vehicle apart like tissue paper and set it ablaze!  There were no survivors.

A lot of dice were thrown that turn to see if any zombies were attracted by noise.  Since it's a rural area, only a '6' would have this effect, so a lone figure was placed on the road between the woods.  He stood there, swaying gently, for several turns thereafter without moving (many failed activations).

The black car realised that it couldn't get through the camp gate, so it turned sharply to avoid piling into the burning wreckage of the pickup.  As it passed along the fence line, the leaderless soldiers abandoned all attempt at fire discipline and riddled it with bullets.  The driver was wounded, but a passenger managed to take control and the remaining gangers fled, empty-handed.

This time, the dice gods went the other way!  As the dust settled and the noise of the fleeing vehicle receded into the distance, silence fell for a moment.  Then, one of the soldiers shouted "Look!" and pointed to the forest.  Out of the trees, figures were stumbling forwards, arms hanging limply at their sides.  They weren't moving fast, but the blank expressions on their faces was unsettling even for the experienced survivors.

The sergeant barked out orders, trying to impose a semblance of order.  Some of the troopers obeyed: Dalton helped John to carry the wounded Connery from the GPV into the first aid station, while Moore ran for the keys to the armoured personnel vehicle.  The plan was to use the APV to push the burning wreckage out of the gate and block the entrance.

Meanwhile, Eastwood was trying to turn the GPV round and move it into a position where he could use its roof-mounted machine gun.  However, in the tight space and with people running around all over, this wasn't easy!

Further off, Norris (the minigunner) had discovered more zombies.  These were trying to break through the fence, having been attracted by the noise and the smoke.  Smoke?  "A little help here!" shouted Norris over his shoulder.  The building beside him was rippling with heat; flames could be seen inside it.  Perhaps a stray bullet had hit something flammable, or maybe one of the occupants had dropped a cigarette or left a camp stove running in their haste?  Whatever the reason, the hut was definitely on fire!

Darcy and Lizzie ran over to the burning building to see what they could do.  After a while, John joined them and with all 3 civilians fighting the fire, they eventually managed to put it out.  It was obvious that the hut was gutted, though; very little of its contents could have survived.

Several of the troopers at the gate moved outside of the camp, past the burning pickup truck.  This gave them a good line of sight and they started to pick off the zombies which were now approaching from left, right and centre.

Norris thinned out the group that was trying to break through the fence.  They could see him now and their moans and snarls were growing more insistent, but so far the fence was holding.  However, it didn't seem to matter how many he killed - more zombies just kept coming out of the woods!

Finale

At this point, we ran out of time and had to pack up.  We haven't yet seen most of the encounters that are described in the Safe Zone scenario and the game doesn't feel finished.  The current situation is that the soldiers are holding their own, but the number of zombies is slowly increasing.  John, Darcy and Lizzie are wondering what to do next, whilst Edna is rummaging through the administration block looking for a nice cup of tea.

Will the soldiers try to question or even disarm the newcomers?  Will they be too busy fighting off the undead?  Can the sergeant come up with a plan, or is it just every man for himself?  Too many questions...

I feel sure we'll need to revisit this in a future session and pick up from where we left off!

[Update: Part 2 is now available]

Security Fencing in 28mm

Introduction

Exactly a month ago, I asked on The Miniatures Page if anyone knew how to make cranked fence posts out of MDF or any other cheap material.  I had a desire to build a fenced army camp (see also my Quonset huts) for an upcoming game of All Things Zombie.  Now, many gamers build chain-link fences from simple uprights such as bamboo skewers and these look fine from a distance.  However, I wanted to go a step further than this and model something that would bear a closer inspection.

It turns out that it's not hard for someone with a laser cutter to process a small, custom job - as long as you provide them with the source file for your design.  In this case, the parts that I wanted were very simple shapes and both Corsec Engineering (USA) and Minibits (UK) offered to cut them for me.  I went with the UK company, solely on the basis that the postage costs should be lower.  A couple of weeks later, after a few exchanges of e-mails with Leon at Minibits to determine exactly what would be done and how much it would cost, I received a bag of parts in the post.

The Build

Now I was excited; I had all the parts to make my fences - or did I?  It was immediately apparent that I hadn't thought about how I would base the fence posts.  OK, this was easily sorted: I cut out a series of 1" wide strips of MDF for basing.  These were of varying lengths: some were 6" and some 12".  I am nervous about warping in the longer lengths; so far so good - but only time will tell for sure.  I also cut out a pair of 'L'-shaped 90 degree corner bases.  The edges of the bases were chamfered roughly to remove the obvious 3mm step.

Next, I wondered how to fix the posts.  Initially I had thought of pinning them, but a quick experiment showed that the thin MDF posts were far to fragile to drill holes in.  Instead, I sank holes at 1.5" intervals along the centreline of the bases to act as sockets.  This does, of course, reduce the height of the posts by a couple of mm, but the joint is then quite secure.

OK, the uprights were now glued in (taking a lot of care to make sure that they were vertical!) and supports were fixed to every 3rd post.  Then it struck me: how do (authorised) people or vehicles get from one side of the fence to the other?  I'd completely overlooked the need for a gate!

So, a quick improvisation here: the gate section needed a larger gap than normal between the posts.  Also, the gates needed to hinge.  To that end, I added a couple of short pieces of tubing to each of the inner supports.  The gate pieces themselves would have some bent wire sticking out of the side; this would rest in these tubes and allow the gates to swing freely.  The 2 parts to the gate itself had to be scratch-built and this took quite a lot of effort.  It would have been much simpler had these also been laser-cut MDF, but that hadn't occurred to me at the time!

Adding the Chainlink

While I was considering what to use for the chain link mesh, my wife handed me a piece of fine plastic net that had blown into our garden from somewhere.  It's the sort of material that is used for veils at weddings, or perhaps for advanced flower arrangements - I'm not really sure.  "Would this be any use?" she asked.  "Perfect", I thought.

I'd already found some thin brass wire from which I intended to make the barbed wire runs.  This brass wire had been woven around a wine bottle originally, but I'd saved it just in case it was ever needed.  I used an old technique for modelling barbed wire: wind the wire into a tight coil, flatten the coil and pull it straight (but leaving in the kinks).

So, here's my first completed piece.  This is OK, so far as it goes, but there are some issues with it:

1. The home-made barbed wire strands are a bit crude.  I'm not happy with them.
2. The plastic mesh has been sprayed grey.  However, that was difficult to do because the small piece of netting was very lightweight and would try to float away when I sprayed it!
3. The thin netting was hard to attach evenly to the posts, so as to eliminate any sagging.
4. The completed structure is rather flimsy and probably won't stand up well to the rigours of tabletop use.  If I were making static scenery for model railways then this wouldn't be a consideration!

The Final Version

 It's hard to reverse course in the middle of a model-making project.  By this time, I'd attached plastic mesh to most of the fence pieces.  However, I decided that the thin net just wasn't working the way I wanted, so I removed all of it.

Instead, I replaced it with the traditional aluminium mesh, though sprayed and dry-brushed to soften the colour a bit.  For the wire strands, I remembered that I had a roll of model barbed wire from Gale Force 9, bought for some occasion just like this.  Once the decision was made, finishing off the fencing was very quick.

There is more vegetation on the inside of the compound than on the outside, on the basis that there may be grazing animals on one side but not the other.  I also modeled one section of fence as broken down, though curiously the way the wire has been wrecked suggests that something from inside the base has broken through.  I wonder what it was that escaped!

Cost for this project was £5 for the custom-made MDF posts, £4 for aluminium mesh, £4 (ish) for GF9 barbed wire, plus small amounts of paint, glue, static grass and MDF bases that I had lying around.  So maybe £14 in total, for which I have over 6 feet of fencing.  Was it worth it?  I think so, but you'll have to decide for yourself!