TRWNN: The Shooting Contest

Introduction

In today's game of The Rules with No Name, there's going to be a shooting competition.  Mr Henry Smythe (the proprietor of the town's biggest gun shop) has offered a brand new rifle of the latest model as a prize.  This exceptional weapon has quite a reputation and this has drawn in hopeful contestants from far and wide.  The sheriff and his deputies are keeping a close watch on things during the contest, but who knows what will happen when the victor leaves the town boundaries?

The Scenario

This game will be in 2 parts.  As a prologue there will be the competition itself, followed by the main opart of the game (in which the winner attempts to escape with his prize).

Forces

Each player is randomly allocated a main character who will take part in the competition.  These are all either shootist or legend classes, with a variety of skills.  Additionally, each player will have a sidekick of either gunman or citizen class.  These sidekicks won't play any part in the competition (apart from spectating) but will be used in the main game.

We had 5 players.  The groups were as follows (and yes, there were quite a lot of Mexican cowboys involved this time):

• Santos and Jebediah
• Emilio and Santiago
• Jesse and Esteban
• Black Bart and Kid Shelleen
• Tuco and Old Pete

The Shooting Competition

For this part of the scenario, each contestant would take 4 shots at a target.  It is assumed that they were firing with rifles, lent to them for the duration of the competition and that the firing is deliberate (i.e. not aimed).  Each shot would be evaluated by throwing the number of dice for the range band plus appropriate modifiers for class and any personal attributes.

• If the best dice is a '6' then the shooter has hit the bullseye (gold) and scores 4 points.
• If it's a '5' then they hit the red (3 points)
• If a '4' or a '3' then the blue or white is hit (2 or 1 points respectively).
• If the best dice is a '1' or a '2' then they've missed the target altogether and much jeering will probably follow!

The first round of shooting will be at short range (i.e. 3 dice for range + personal bonuses).  After the initial round, if anyone is ahead by 3 or more points then they are the outright winner.  Otherwise the contestants who are more that 3 points away from the winner drop out, the targets are moved back to medium range (i.e. 2 dice for range + personal bonuses) and the remaining contestants take another 4 shots.  If necessary, this is repeated at long range as well, until there is a clear winner.

Leaving Town

Once the contest is over, the winner is given the prize rifle (this is such a good weapon that it gets +1 dice when fired) and retires to the saloon for a short celebration.  While he's doing this, the jealous other parties all plot their revenge!

Each of the other players is given 3 tokens.  2 are blank and 1 has a suitable mark on the back.  In turn, they place all of these tokens face-down behind cover between the town boundary and the stables (where the hero's horse is tied up).  A token is revealed when the hero or his sidekick can see it without any intervening cover, or when the owning player chooses to do so at the start of a turn.  If it's a blank then the token is simply removed.  Otherwise, the group associated with that token is placed on the board.

Victory

To win is very simple: you have to take the prize rifle into the barn at the end of the table.  It is then assumed that you find a horse and make your escape.  Note that all players share this victory condition: the only advantage (?!) that the winner of the shooting contest has is that he starts this segment with the prize.  Let's see how long he can keep it...

Our Game

1st round: Close range

In the first round of shooting, it was quickly obvious that Emilio and Tuco were a long way ahead of the rest.  The 2 of them progressed to a second round, whilst the rest retired, grumbling.

2nd round: Medium range

Emilio seemed to have some difficulty at the slightly longer range, or maybe the pressure was getting to him.  His shooting wasn't as consistent as it might have been, whereas Tuco's shots were still very well grouped.  With such a commanding performance, Tuco was declared the winner and was given the prize rifle.  Now all he had to do was retrieve his horse and gallop off into the sunset!

As the afternoon turned into evening, Tuco and his faithful friend Old Pete came out of the saloon where they had been celebrating their win.  The street was deserted; everyone else had left already.  "I have a bad feeling about this" mumbled Pete, as the pair set off for the barn where they had left their horses that morning.

Carefully, the pair made their way through the town's back alleys, trying to think how to cross the open ground on the outskirts.

They avoided the main road (well, dirt track) and had travelled perhaps 2/3 of the way towards the barn before seeing anyone else, when...

2 players decided that this had gone far enough and declared their positions.  Oddly enough, both Emilio & Santiago and Jesse & Esteban had decided to hide near a rocky outcrop on the far side of the road out of town.

Tuco wasted no time in using his new rifle.  He was lucky enough to be dealt a whole bunch of action cards and used these to aim and fire at both Emilio and Jesse.  Despite the range and the slightly-obscured targets, both men were sent scurrying for cover - Emilio clutching at a badly-bleeding shoulder.

Showing a considerable amount of bravery (or maybe foolishness!), Santiago ran back to his injured friend Emilio.  He picked up his boss's (ordinary) rifle and fired at Tuco.  Santiago wasn't a very good shot, but he put enough lead in the air to cause Tuco to duck down behind a small cactus.  Meanwhile, Jesse used the distraction to start on a wide flanking manoeuvre.

At this point, a Bystander card was drawn.  Lola Vasquez, a "certain kind of lady", came out of one of the buildings, looking for mischief.  She would be controlled by whichever player drew the first character card of each turn, so the target of her fluttering eyelids could change from turn to turn.

At about the same time, another team declared their position.  Black Bart and Kid Shelleen appeared from inside the barn, where they had been hoping to stage an ambush.  They were tired of waiting and moved outside to see what was the result of all the recent gunfire.

Sadly for the newcomers, Tuco was once again gifted with a handful of action cards.  Again, he used the prize rifle to aim and fire at Black Bart and Santiago.  Both men were luck that the bullets hit the cover behind which they were sheltering, but the splinters and dust caused both of them to hit the dirt nevertheless.

Meanwhile, the wounded Emilio had drawn his pistol with his off hand and was approaching Tuco from the front (but sheltered from view by a small patch of scrub).  Similarly, Jesse was coming in from the side, hidden by a rock outcropping.

Jesse thought he had the drop on the distracted Tuco, so he stepped out from behind his rock and prepared to shoot.  However, Tuco was unbelievably fast; he spun round and fired before the big man - but missed.  Jesse's hasty return shot also went wide.

Not fancying his chances at gun play, Jesse decided to charge Tuco and wrestle with him.  This obviously caught the legend off guard; he didn't react as the tall stranger closed the distance.  Old Pete, Tuco's loyal sidekick, ran in to help his boss - though against the brawling specialist this looked like a forlorn hope.  (Jesse was typically rolling between 6 and 8 dice in melee, depending on his chosen attack or defence.  Old Pete usually rolled 2 dice...)

It looked as if the gambit had paid off for Jesse as he punched Tuco's lights out.  Now all he had to do was overcome the little old man and he'd be able to pick up the prize rifle from Tuco's unconscious body.

At this point, the final group entered play.  Santos and Jebediah came out of the tent on the far side of the road, close to where Santiago was dithering about what to do next.

In a strange decision, Emilio decided to give up trying to cross the fence (perhaps his injured arm made this just too difficult?) and run to the aid of his sidekick (Santiago) instead.  He charged full pelt straight towards the new arrivals but Jebediah, despite being only a lowly citizen, thumped Emilio so hard that he went down for good.

Santos now marched towards the fence, intending (I think) to cross and have it out with Tuco.  On the way, he was beset on all sides.  Both Kid Shelleen and Esteban blazed away at him, but although both of them emptied their pistols, neither came close to hitting.  Lola also tried to entice him away from his plan, but the man in black wasn't at all interested in her charms.

Even as Santos was rejoined by his sidekick (Jebediah), he tired of the 2 pests who had been firing at him.  Santos walked casually between them and shot down both his attackers.

Meanwhile, Old Pete was doing a very impressive job of fighting with Jesse.  Unbelievably, the big man just couldn't get past the old timer.  Tuco recovered consciousness, grabbed his prize rifle and ran hell for leather  towards the barn.  He slipped past the waiting Black Bart at the end of the fence line before the latter could react, but was hotly pursued by Santos.  And at this point we had to end the game and pack up.  Tuco was within 1 move of safety!

Conclusion

Well, that was anarchy!  Who won?  I have no idea!  Let's see:

• Santos and Jebediah were both unhurt and had acquired considerable kudos from capturing and killing enemies.  Not the right ones, however.
• Emilio was wounded, knocked out and tied up.  His sidekick Santiago started well, but then hung about uselessly in the background.
• Jesse had a good plan, but was foiled by an old codger that he should have been able to push over.  Esteban didn't do much.
• Black Bart was pretty useless as a "main" character: he stood around looking fierce but did nothing more.  Kid Shelleen tried hard, but was too junior to make much impression on his own.
• Tuco won the competition and still held the prize rifle at the end of the game, though he hadn't yet escaped.  Old Pete was quite a hero, though not in a way I would have predicted at the start.

Who do you think was man (or woman!) of the match?

Something completely different: ModelRail Scotland 2014

Today I took time off from my own model-making and travelled in to Glasgow with my younger children.  There we visited the ModelRail Scotland 2014 show which is, funnily enough, centred around model railways.

Now I'm not a railroad modeller myself, despite having spent much of my childhood poring through Hornby catalogues and despite the large quantities of Brio and compatible wooden track & rolling stock currently to be found in my house.  However I do occasionally go to such shows to gain inspiration and materials for terrain-making.

I found that this year's show was not useful for me as a shopping trip and was a little disappointing in terms of the layouts on view (there were a huge number, but little that was truly unique or original).  However there were some scenes that made me think a bit harder...

I was particularly taken with the bushes on this layout, but I failed to ask how they was made (something to do with having 2 children in tow - they were a bit distracting at times!)  Clearly there is a lot of green foam involved and I'd even hazard a guess that it's Woodland Scenics Medium Green Clump-Foliage.  But there's more to it than that; there's some texture and colour variation that wouldn't come from using the foam on its own.

I've often felt that my own terrain efforts are just too clean; there aren't enough brambles, gorse, ragged grass or other invaders around the edges.  It's all very well for an inhabited, domestic building to have well-kept boundaries, but most industrial sites have quite a lot of growth around the lesser-used parts even if they're still in use.  Of course, if a site has been abandoned then there should generally be far more weeds!  I could also use some "bad going" scatter terrain like this - but how did they do it?

Here's another example of the difference between some railway models and wargames tables.  This is an otherwise quite ordinary layout, but look at the contours.  The landscape has height; there are rises and dips.  It's all very gentle, but nevertheless it adds considerably to the overall effect.  I'm not sure how this could be replicated on a game board - indeed I'm now wondering how & where most railway modellers store their layouts?

My final picture is also of a layout that has elevation.  In this case it's almost 2-dimensional again - but with length and height as the 2 dimensions.  It makes an excellent public display, since all of the terrain is at much the same distance from the viewer (you won't strain to see the further details!).

Initially I wondered how such a large rock-face had been modelled, until I realised that it was built from many separate pieces, each perhaps 6" or 9" across.  The joins between each part have been disguised with trees, waterfalls or scree - very clever!

It's got me thinking whether it would be possible to do a wargames table like this for a cliff assault - a board that is essentially flat, but which is propped up at 70 degrees or so when in use for a game.  I haven't got all the practicalities worked out yet, but I wonder if anyone else has attempted this already?  Hmm...

SAGA: Scots cavalry and monks

Introduction

I've been slowly building up my forces for SAGA, to the point where I now have quite a decent Scots force (7 points worth, I think).  Most games would use between 4 and 6 point warbands, so I have a choice of which troops to take for this army.

I still need to build up my Vikings to match (5 points at the moment), but true to form I have wandered off target and started an Anglo-Dane warband as well (only a few figures painted, so far).  The Anglo-Danes aren't ready to display, but my earlier units are mostly described here:

• Scots
• Vikings
• Viking ship: the "Long Serpent"

Now, it's time for some more Scots...

Cavalry

One of my birthday presents last year were 2 packs of Dark Age Scots cavalry by Crusader Miniatures.  This gives me 6 figures to play with, but 1 point of hearthguard in SAGA equates to 4 models.  I'll use the 5th figure as a mounted warlord.  The 6th man (well, boy blowing a horn) will be painted up anyway.  If/when I buy another packet of 3 figures then he'll pad them out into another group of 4.

In the one game that these guys have played so far, they performed very poorly (couldn't even defeat a small boy and a flock of chickens).  However, I'm sure they'll improve once they get the hang of things.  After all, they couldn't do much worse!

Angry Monks

 

For Christmas, I decided to buy myself a load of monks.  These can either be passive and act as scenario objectives or distractions, or I can use 12 of them as a unit of "angry monks" in any non-Viking army.  I've read the SAGA rules for such a band and it seems that they'd have very limited fighting ability but there is some advantage to the owner if they become martyrs.  How could I resist that?!

I ordered 12 figures from Gripping Beast, from their 'civilians' range, rather than the ones sold specifically for SAGA.  Although I had intended to buy 3 different sets (of 4 figures each), I ended up with 2 sets of the "parading" monks.  Consequently there are duplicate models here, though I've tried to make them look a bit different by varying the paintwork.

These are not, I think, the best figures that Gripping Beast have ever produced.  The moulds seem to be ageing a bit and so the models needed to be cleaned of more flash and other debris than I would have liked.  I also think that the faces of the ones who have bowed heads are a little lumpy and crude.  However, this minor criticism needs to be kept in perspective: they are completely acceptable figures at a very reasonable price.

As with all my SAGA figures, the monks have suitable Dark Age names.  In this case the names are gathered from all over the British Isles rather than being specific to one faction.  Mainly this was because I couldn't find authentic names for 16 Scots holy men from the 9th century.  No doubt someone could out-Google me at this if they desired, but it isn't really necessary!

The 4 monks with weapons (to the left) are the other part of my order from Gripping Beast.  They have weapons and some armour, though I imagine that none of them are really trained in how to use it.  I suppose there might be the occasional 'younger son of a nobleman' or 'retired soldier' who has fought before amongst their ranks...

On the right are 4 models from Black Tree Design.  Officially these are "Brothers of Shrewsbury Abbey", from the time of the 2nd Crusade (i.e. Cadfael and friends), but I don't think monkish costume changed much over 300 years!

The Black Tree figures are somewhat taller than the Gripping Beast ones.  That doesn't bother me (people come in many shapes and sizes), but I've unwittingly made them stand out by painting their clothing with different shades of brown.  Still, I don't think it will matter too much.

ATZ (B Team-4): Little Lost Girl. Part 2

Introduction

A short while ago, I published Part 1 of "Little Lost Girl".  Since it was my wedding anniversary, I didn't have enough time to complete the story in a single sitting.  That was then, so here is the 2nd and final part of the battle report...

Bob's Friends?

Bob was jolted out of his bacon roll reverie by the sound of footsteps approaching from the far side of the nearest van.  He was just starting to be alarmed when 3 humans walked into view (Vincenzo, Mary and Timmy - all REP 4).  Their leader, a tall, fit-looking man in a brown suit, eyed Bob up warily.  "We heard shots" he said, calmly.  "Was that you?  I don't see any zeds around here..."
"Yes" replied the flustered tradesman.  "Er, no.  No - I haven't got a gun, see".
"Hey, don't sweat it" said Vincenzo.  "We're not trying to rob you or anything, OK?  Just looking out for ourselves.  You do know that noise seems to attract the Zs, don't you?"
"Sure, well of course".
"OK, then.  You take care".  With that, the 3 people started to walk away, in the direction of the restaurant.

"Er, no - I wouldn't go that way!" called Bob, as he realised which direction the newcomers had taken.  His warning came a little too late, though, as the family almost bumped into the zombies who were following the sounds of Ernie's and Sid's argument.

There was a sharp rattle of gunfire as both Vincenzo and Timmy opened up with automatic weapons.  Although they did kill 1 zombie and knocked down others, the remainder were upon them before they could do much.  Mary fled as the creatures approached and Timmy managed (just!) to fend off his attackers.  However, Vincenzo was quickly surrounded.

Timmy ran after Mary as soon as he could free himself from the attackers' clutches.  For a moment, it looked as if Vincenzo would also be able to get away...

...but the remaining zombies overwhelmed him and tore the big man apart in a frenzy.

Bob's Enemies

While the fight was going on behind him, Bob was faced with another pair of zombies that had been attracted by all the commotion.  Fortunately for the builder, there was only room for one of these to approach at once due to the narrow gaps between the cars in front of him.  Bob readied his hammer and waited for the first assailant to come into range.  To his complete surprise, his swing was perfectly timed to catch the zombie right in the middle of the skull; it went down hard and stopped moving.

He swung again and once more his hammer hit just the right spot, caving in the zombie's skull and sending it crashing to the ground.  "Huh" he muttered.  "They're not so tough.  It's all in the wrist.  Go, me!"

The snarling sounds of the zombies behind him, feasting on Vincenzo brought Bob back to the real world.  Quickly, he ran through the lines of abandoned cars and joined his friends in the gun shop.  Bob was just in time to see Sid charging across the floor and delivering an almighty blow to a zombie with his crossing sign.

Once the immediate threat was neutralised, the team looked around the shop.  Much of the merchandise was locked away in cabinets that they couldn't open, but Michelle took a hunting bow from a rack on the wall.  "I used to be quite good at archery in summer camp" she explained, looking slightly abashed.

Sid rummaged around behind the counter and came up with a bottle of antibiotic pills.  "I wonder why the owner kept them here, in the shop?" he mused.

"Lucy, where are you?" called Michelle, realising that the little girl was no longer in sight.  The child popped her head up from beneath the desk, grinning from ear to ear.  "Look what I found!" she exclaimed.  "It's a real knife!"  It was one of the biggest Bowie knives that any of the adults had ever seen (What are the odds?  Lucy drew the "Machete" card again from the reshuffled Risks and Rewards deck!).

The group moved to search the rooms above the shop.  They split up to investigate the separate rooms, but Lucy's father wasn't anywhere to be found.  Instead, two very heavily armed women (Emma and Jenny) were holed up in the apartment.  Politely, but very firmly, they asked the B-team to leave.

Sid and Ernie's bickering continued, until a zombie heard the noise and followed them up the stairs.  The two friends fell silent as they realised what they had done, then Ernie knocked the creature down and Sid finished it off by jamming his pole where it wasn't designed to go.

The street appeared to be empty as the party left "Bob's Bargain Bullets" (because all the zombies were wandering on the other side of the line of traffic and couldn't see the people).  They decided to move on to the adjacent book store, hoping to find Lucy's father there.

Alternate Ending (?!)

On the night of the game, I was going to finish at this point so as to have plenty of time to pack up.  The hall we hire is used by some dance group immediately after us and therefore we need to be out promptly.  Often we're a bit slow in halting the play; it usually takes longer to pack up than I have allowed!

However, this time the players remonstrated and pointed out that we had a few minutes more.  We played on for a little, but in a considerable hurry.  Rather than present photos of the action within the book shop (which is an "empty shell" build anyway), here's a quick summary:

• Ground floor: 3 zombies.  1 shot by Michelle with her new bow, 2 others killed in melee.
• Upper floor: 2 zombies (1 adult and 1 child).  Adult zombie dispatched, but the child infected both Ernie and Sid.  Lucy ran away screaming, pursued closely by Michelle and Bob.

So, here's a dilemma; one that I've never faced before.  I probably shouldn't have continued the game - we were in too much of a rush and mistakes were made.  I imagine that we played some rules wrong as well as some of the hasty tactics being flawed.  But the truth of is that we did play on.

Do I let the results stand (i.e. 2 party members zombified and the others fleeing - a failed mission), or should I only count up to where I had initially wanted to halt (where everyone was still alive and the mission was a minor success)?  What do you think?  Live or die?  The game length that was intended or what was actually played?

ATZ (B Team-4): Little Lost Girl. Part 1

Introduction

In the last game of All Things Zombie that involved the B-team (here) Bob, Ernie and Sid managed to escape from a police station that was besieged by zombies.  Just ahead of them, a little girl (Lucy) and a stranger (Michelle) had also managed to run away.

Now that they've put some distance between themselves and the zombie horde, Michelle and Lucy have stopped running.  It's time for some explanations:
"What's your name, dear?"
"Lucy"
"And how old are you, Lucy?"
"I'll be seven next month.  My daddy told me not to speak to strangers, you know"
"Well, I'm Michelle.  There - we're not strangers any more.  Um, where is your daddy, anyway?"
"He went out to do some shopping.  He said I should stay home, but it wasn't safe there.  The bad people were all around and so I came out to rescue daddy".
"OK, I think we need to try to find your daddy.  There are some shops in the next block; do you think he might have gone there?"
"Maybe..."

Scenario

The Setup

The player characters (B-team, Michelle & Lucy) are to the north of a main road.  On the other side of the street are several shops, but the route is obstructed by a large number of abandoned vehicles.  There are a few zombies wandering about and 3 PEFs (possible enemy forces) are also present.

The Mission

Victory is determined by searching for Lucy's father.  If one or more civilians are discovered anywhere then he'll be amongst them on a roll of 5 or 6.  The players don't necessarily have to find him, but they have to make a reasonable attempt.

The Characters

This is not a high-powered zombie-hunting team!  Rather, they are all citizens in the relatively early period of the Z-apocalypse (it's Z-day+21), just trying to survive.

• Ernie: REP 3, golf club.  Leader.
• Bob: REP 3, hammer.  Dumbass
• Sid: REP 3, crossing sign on pole (improvised 2-handed weapon)
• Michelle: REP 3
• Lucy: REP 2, big-ass pistol (it's her daddy's gun and she won't give it to anyone else!)

The Game

While Michelle was wondering what to do next, the B-team quickly caught up with the ladies.  "Need a hand, love?" called Sid.
Ernie quickly interjected "Ah, what my friend means is that we'd all be safer sticking together.  Especially after what we've just been through."
"Well..." was as much as Michelle managed to answer when there was a deafening bang from just beside them, closely followed by another.  The adults looked round and were horrified to discover that Lucy had braced her pistol on a nearby wall and was firing at something.

Bob, whose knowledge of building techniques was considerable, stared at the nearby burger bar.  "'Ere, that middle window isn't in its frame properly", he said.  "I reckon they were in the middle of replacing it and never finished the job".

The others were interested more in something much closer, though.  The closest PEF turned out to be 3 zombies who had just come round the building and were approaching rapidly.  Little Lucy's shots had been wide of their target and had only served to encourage the shambling creatures.

Even as the 3 zombies charged to attack, others were coming through the lines of vehicles to find out what had caused the noise.
Surprisingly, Bob, Sid and Lucy all passed their "brown pants" test and stood to receive the attacks.  Things didn't look at all good for the humans, especially for Lucy (at REP 2 and without a melee weapon, she'd roll 1 dice in melee plus 1 automatic success, whereas even a single zombie rolls 3 dice).  Bob fended off his attacker with his hammer and Sid whacked the zombie he was facing with his crossing pole.  Amazingly, Lucy side-stepped deftly and tripped her clumsy assailant as well (must be the effect of all those early dance lessons!); all 3 undead ended up on the ground.

There was another loud roar as Lucy pointed her pistol at the fallen zombie's head and pulled the trigger.  Bob and Sid laid into their foes with pole and hammer and finished them off too.

The humans then looked up and saw how many more zombies were approaching.  "Eek!  Run, everyone!" called Ernie, so the party sprinted towards the building.  They knocked aside the unfinished window and entered the burger bar.  The zombies followed, but slowly.

Inside the restaurant, the party felt safe enough to have a quick look around.  Michelle noticed a handbag amongst some abandoned clothes at one table.  "That's a Chloé!  I'm having that..." she muttered, as she scooped it up.  Ernie found a "Legends of Manchester United" football DVD which he pocketed surreptitiously.  But it was Lucy who surprised the adults, though.

"What have you got there, dear?" asked Michelle.
"A knife" replied the girl, holding up a large butcher knife that she had retrieved from a drawer in the kitchen.
"Um, perhaps I'd better look after that for you?"
"No!  I found it - it's mine!"
"Er, OK then."

At the same time, Ernie muttered to Sid "You shouldn't have said that to her, back outside.  It was disrespectful, you know."
Sid replied "What are you talking about?  Don't you have a go at me; I haven't done anything wrong!"
The pair of them muttered and grumbled about what was appropriate when talking to a strange woman for most of the rest of the game, with neither prepared to give way.  Fortunately for the rest of the party, the disagreement was fairly low key and not especially noisy.

The humans left the burger bar by the employee entrance at the back.  For the most part, they were quietly optimistic.  The zombies were well behind them and several of them had found interesting items to play with.  However, the players failed to notice that they were being stalked by a particularly enthusiastic (REP 5) PEF; it was just the other side of the nearest camper van.

They carried on blithely, across the street and into the nearest shop (an armoury called "Bob's Bargain Bullets").  Only when they got there did the group realise that Bob wasn't with them.  Ernie, the leader, had been concentrating so much on arguing with Sid that he hadn't realised they'd left Bob behind.

Bob had been daydreaming about his next bacon roll (i.e. he'd failed his "dumbass" roll) and hadn't noticed that the rest of the group had gone on without him.  He was left to face the PEF all on his own!


To be continued...

[Update => forward to Part-2]