"Heads up, Toerags, listen in. For you new guys this is goin’ to be your first run into the Devil Zone. I’ve hammered my rules into your thick skulls. So switch on, stay alert, shut up, stay close, don’t think and do everything I say, right away when I say. We’ll go by Gate 17. The Sergeant there is an old army mate. I pulled him out of trouble a few times so we’ll not be followed.
The target is just inside the fence. It’s a French Panhard VBL Recce Car and its team. They’d been guarding a cache from early on. They were ordered to evacuate and they almost made it out. Word is that they were loaded down with valuables. Best bet is that they were overrun by the Muties days ago when the Nuke Storm hit. It has passed over now so we are goin’ in tonight. The army boys are waiting for a recovery truck so won’t drag it out any time soon. It’ll be dodgy in there, Muties, storms, God knows what else.
Any loot we get will be split between us. No Newbie! Nowt for yourself an’ nothing shiny for your maw or granny! Count this run as an investment in your experience. If you do what I say you'll get some lovely cash eventually - if you survive long enough that is. So remember: Switch on, stay alert, shut up, stay close ".
The objective is to clear a small hamlet of hostiles, get to the armoured car and retrieve any loot from it. There are reports are a few hostiles and feral dogs roaming around the area.
Group 1 Gayge (hardened, GL), The Leader, Edan (veteran, SLR), "Slim" (Rookie, Assault Rifle) left flanking
Group 2 Zyre (Rookie, Assault Rifle), Derryl (veteran, LMG), Karilla (hardened, SLR with scope), right flanking
The initial advances met no opposition on the right
And on the left.
All seemed quiet and all that could be seen through the pouring rain was a group of figures swaying and staggering about the Panhard. Peering through his optic sight Edan cursed “F@*ing Zombies!” Slim the Newbie murmured, “Can zombie soldiers shoot?” Drawing a look that froze him to the bone right through his soaking clothes.
Moving quickly down the right Karilla gets into a good position to steady her aim against the zombies at the Panhard. “Just let the rain ease off a little and I’ll get them”.
Meanwhile on the left Edan moves up with Gayge while "Slim" covers the exposed flank. Gayge now spots the zombies around the Panhard and takes aim. "Put that down!" hissed Edan. "Do you want to blow up the salvage?" Gayge slings his Grenade Launcher and draws his fighting knife and pistol. An evil grin spread across his face. Two shots later Edan has dropped the two nearest zombies
On the other side the rain thins just long enough and Karilla drops another on the very edge of visibility. Excellent shot! And a little later another zombie appears from the rain and meets a hail of LMG bullets.
Now things got hairy. Two packs of feral dogs rushed from the ruins one heading of each party.
Both packs ran into a hail of fire. One pack was annihilated by Edan and Gayge but on the right three dogs were killed but one charged home on the hapless Rookie who had fired and sprayed his bullets everywhere except the dogs. He put up a gallant fight killing the dog with his knife but in its death throws the dog inflicted severe damage. Both lay tangled in a bloody heap.
Fortunately Karilla was on hand to administer a Med kit.
With all hostiles now dealt with and time running out Edan and Gayge rushed forward to the Panhard and recovered 2 French Assault Rifles, ammunition, a haversack containing 2 smoke grenades, 2 med kits, 3 HE grenades, as well as 350 value salvage, a pair of binos and a briefcase containing documents and a laptop. With a little more time it would have been even better!
But all in all a very successful first salvage run.
Thoughts on the game: The party was quite powerful and found dealing with the Zone Hostiles relatively easy. That said it did teach us the movement, shooting and melee rules. The main pressure was the 7 turn limit and the Team very nearly ran out of time exiting the board on Turn 7!
So enjoyable and quite balanced for a starter game.