Sunday, March 30, 2014

Home Invasion

"...So I just wandered for the last day or so after I left the pro shop.  It sucked I was at work when this all started, but at least I got Big Bertha here, which has been handy in dealing with these things."  Ella said as she finished a can of soda.  "I love that I'll be able to get a shower and get cleaned up.  That, and not having to worry about being eaten at any moment."  She smiled at the group.  "Thanks for letting me stay!"
"Glad you were in the neighborhood.  We'll need to stick together to get through this."  Allen replied.  "The fact is that none of us know what's really happening out there.  Together we can watch each others backs and survive."

In the last scenario, the group added Ella, she had been masquerading as a zombie to survive.  She is Rep 4, armed with a pistol and an improvised melee weapon (in this case, a golf club) and has the Agile attribute.  The figure is a Wargames Factory Survivors: The Women build.
Ella, ready for a long drive!
Over the last few days, the group "borrowed" from (okay, looted) the next door house, as well as traded a bit with the other two families in the neighborhood.  This allows them to partially furnish the house they are in, helping make it a bit more livable.  They have added a radio and TV, as well as some chairs, a table and some beds.  Next door has an active wi-fi connection, so they get some internet access.  They have also grabbed some clothes, soap and other sundries.

The group has been watching the local news and what international news they can find.  What they get is a confusing picture of contradictions and seemingly draconian measures.  There are dusk to dawn curfews, reports of looters, shootings, and general chaos.  As a whole, they could see the world spiraling out of control, but they were relatively safe where they were.

Dawn was up late, she had been for days now.  Sitting in the front room watching the night slide by silently, she could deal with the horrors.  She desperately missed Cindy.  From the start, Cindy had saved Dawn - pulled her from the traffic jam, and staying together until they met Mark and the rest.  Dawn was happy she was with them, but she missed her home, and just wanted things back to normal.
Headlights played across the front of the house, shutting off as three cars rolled down the street.  Two sports cars and a pickup truck drove to the corner, parking in front of the Richardson house, at 1216 Woodstock Lane.  Dawn's eyes flew wide when she saw the armed men and women gathering by the cars.  Judging by the gestures, they were going to go into the Richardson house.
"We've gotta help them!"  Dawn thought and ran to get everyone awake.

This scenario is 8 gangers attacking a random house at night.  The streetlights are working, but otherwise everyone has a 6" vision limit.  I rolled a d10, with the various homes being 1-6, and the group's home being 7-10.  I rolled a 5, and got the house at 1216 Woodstock.  There will be no zombies to start, but 3 PEF's.  Instead of the normal encounters for PEFs, these will be 1-4:d6 zombies, 5-6: d3 gangers.  They still have to pass 2d vs the encounter rating, just like a normal PEF.
Police response will be 1/2d+1d6 turns, plus a 50% chance they don't show at all.  I will roll for the chance on the turn they are supposed to arrive.  It would take the group d6 turns to be ready.  I rolled a 2, which got them into action pretty quick.  The neighbor's at least locked their front door, so that should buy some extra time before things get too bad...
The gang gets ready to attack
The gang is armed as the figures appear (mostly BAP, pistols and a shotgun) plus one figure has a chainsaw.  They are lead by a rep 5 (born leader) armed with a BAP and wearing body armor, four are rep 4, the remainder are rep 3.  The gang has left the city, and are looking for 'supplies' as well as a new place to live.
Move in!
A loud crash woke up the Richardson family.  One of the front windows crashed in as a large rock flew through it.  They could hear hammering on the front door, then the guttural roar of a chainsaw split the night.  Donald grabbed his pistol and stood at the top of the stairs, shaken, but ready to fire.  His daughter shrieked upstairs as she looked outside.  "There's a bunch of them!  They have guns!"
The door crashed in, and the chainsaw shut off.  "Don't come in here"  Donald shouted.  "I'll shoot!"
"So will we!"  Big Money shouted back.  "Just walk on out and we'll let ya leave!" 
Jackson laughed "Yeah!  Just come on out!"  They set aside the chainsaw, and got ready to head in.
Luckily its nothing
Donald failed his citizen brown pants roll, and retreated upstairs with his family.  The two gangers entered the house, but did hesitate before going very far.  Mark and the group ran out the back of their house, and circled around the block.  They uncovered one of the PEFs (which turned out to be nothing) and formed up a firing line in the dark.
The truck was just inside the streetlight glow
Allen failed his brown pants roll when he saw the gangers.  With the screams and crying echoing from the Richardson house, it wasn't a hard decision for the rest of the group to choose to open fire on the gang.  They had a great opening round.  The first ganger went out of the fight right away, the other two were obviously dead.
Just like a shooting gallery
The gang reacted by trying to move towards the shooting.  Mark's group was in the dark, but could see anyone moving through the streetlights before they could see the group.  That did pose a problem as the gang moved up - how do you handle the check?  Is it when they first come into sight by the one side, or when they complete their move, and both sides are in sight?  I went ahead and moved the gangers and then did the in sight test - besides, it all depends on which figures move first anyway, and it just makes sense from the way I read the rules.

Ella fails her brown pants roll to start the next round of in sight tests.  Man, that rule gets annoying.
Standoff in the dark
Neither side could shoot very well.  The gangers fast moved to get into firing position, and that threw off their aim (as well as Mark and Dawn).  Two of the gangers failed the received fire test, hiding next to the house.  Mark's group won initiative, and he started by shooting down the last ganger in the open.  It was the leader, and even though he had body armor, Mark's shot dropped him dead.  Dawn and Mark moved back to Allen and Ella as the other gangers finally moved up.
Moving back in the dark
Allen was having a hard time recovering from his duck back, and the gang had a round where the group didn't activate.  They moved forwards to cover, but couldn't see the group to fire.  Eventually, Mark's group recovered and moved back around to the main street.  The police should have arrived, but didn't appear, which meant they wouldn't.
Sneaking through the backyard

Wait until they come back!
Mark stood in the street, the cool spring night air making his hands clammy as he gripped his pistol.  The rest of the group stood next to him, in a loose line, ready to fire when the gangers came back to their cars.  The wind raised slightly, and the trees rustled.  Suddenly, a loud crack of a branch breaking made Mark spin around.  Zombies shambled forward into the yellowish streetlight.  "Zombies!" Mark yelled as he grabbed his bat.
Zombies!
The last PEF resolved as zombies.  (I am not sure when the second was resolved - it was another nothing PEF, so it didn't matter)  Mark switched to his bat, and charged.  The rest of the group followed behind him,
firing on the other zombies.  All they managed to do was knock one down.  Mark took out two with his bat.
Facing the zombies
The group repositioned to back up Mark as he fought in hand to hand.  Nobody could manage to hit the lone zombie before it stood up. The zombies piled into Mark, who had a hard fight to take on three zombies.  Meanwhile the gangers first reacted by doing nothing, then moving up the street to engage the group.
Midnight standoff
First off, everyone passed their brown pants roll.  One of the gangers went first, and hit Allen.  He went down, out of the fight.  Dawn acted next, fired, and killed the ganger that had hit Allen.  She missed the other ganger.  The last ganger fired next, and hit Dawn.  She also went down out of the fight.  Ella fired last, and managed to kill the last ganger.  Ella passed her man down check, and watched Mark finish off the zombies.
Just like that, its over.
Both Allen and Dawn recovered.  The Richardson family was grateful for the help, and took a pair of pistols from the gangers.  In addition, the gang cars were moved to form barricades in the neighborhood (and drained of fuel).  The leader's body armor was recovered, plus the weapons from the other gangers.  That gives the group a pretty fair arsenal.  Next everyone will begin barricading their homes.

Allen and Dawn both passed the checks to stay, luckily it was a successful mission.

18 comments:

  1. Another great episode comes to conclusion. There was a fair bit of loot earned this game. Shall look forward to what happens next.

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    1. As things seem to get better...I am sure they will get worse.

      Thanks for dropping by!

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  2. Things are looking good for the group. They should enjoy it while it lasts!

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    1. I am sure it will be short lived. It always has been in the past.

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  3. Great report, I have really enjoyed reading them so far! Thanks for posting them up. I have a random question re. the gang leader: How did you determine his having body armour? I have FFO but can't see where body armour gets predetermined..

    Keep up the great work :)

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it!

      As far as the body armour - I give any leader/star a random chance of body armor, as well as any rep 4+ grunt. Basically a star or leader rolls a 1-2 on a d6 and gets armor, a grunt needs a 1. At least for now - later I will modify what people can have, or how common it is.

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  4. Good scenario though at first sight it looked very tough on the party, though I assumed from your write-up that noise didn't attract additional zombies.
    The party deserved their success given the risks they took to defend their neighbours.
    This was yet another very enjoyable read.

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    1. Yeah, I forgot to mention that - no noise or otherwise for generating zombies. I had planned the PEFs to be the only zeds that would appear. I figured it would be a tough enough fight without the zeds, and it is still early in the apocalypse.

      I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the write up!

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  5. Another great Batrep dude. Running around shooting in the dark sounds like a dumb idea but it turned out OK in the end. Nice campaign, hope the group makes it through.

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    1. Thanks!

      Using the dark as concealment worked out well - most of the time the group was shooting into well lit areas. That setup made running around the dark make more sense...

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  6. You know, when I saw that the locals were going up against 8 armed gangers with a REP5 leader, I feared the worst. I still cannot figure out how the bunch of citizens came through this with only a couple of minor injuries!

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    1. It came down to the first round of fire. Being able to shoot and not get shot, and bringing the odds much closer to even made all the difference. Having seen what darkness limited sight does, that can have a huge effect.

      The dice were kind, I was sure I was going to loose Allen or Dawn after they got shot. You can't count on that every time tho...

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  7. Another awesome Batrep and nice to see the campaign's narrative continuing in the neighbourhood, and the group did well!

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    1. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the report! The campaign is coming along nicely.

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  8. They had luck this time. Hopefully, they wont take it easy next time. they took the gangers by surprise for sure.

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    1. That first round made all the difference. Getting the drop on the gangers gave the group a chance and the dice worked out well. It's still an simple bad roll away from disaster...

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  9. Now I didn't expect that result. Nice show old boy, thanks.

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    1. Yeah, I figured someone was going down, but the dice were kind for once. Hopefully the streak can continue.

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