Kublacon Report: Day Two (pt 1)

Promptly at 7:00, my daughter stood up in her crib and, seeing her parents, decided we should wake up as well. Meredith got and gave her a bottle while I wondered how the little gnomes managed to put sandpaper under my eyelids without me noticing.

But it was Kubla. I didn't come here to sleep. So I got up, went downstairs, and got some coffee for me, Mer, and my step-mom (babysitter for lil'un). The one nice thing about having a 7am wakeup is that I could slowly wakeup, have a costco muffin, and chat before I had to get going.

So shower and it was time for Rezolution. Luckily we had Dan crashing in the other hotel room and could use his cart to get all our terrain. The three Crews I brought all came down in 1 army transport. The three tables worth of terrain took up substantially more space.

The Rezolution campaign-a-ment used the system from the Outbreak book, slighty modified. We were playing the linked scenarios as our Crew tried to escape being trapped on the Serenity moon colony. Players got bonus campaign points for having a fully painted Crew and for choosing "non-standard" leaders. For example, Trent had a Bride of Lilith as his leader and got 2 campaign points.

I took my cursed Ronin Crew. I think in the two or so years since I assembled them, they've won like 2 games. Mainly because I take a lot of the not-normal choices. The crew is:
Maven
Fiddler
2 Ghosts
4 Fists
2 Bricks w/miniguns
Esper

Since my fiddler was my second (a non-standard choice) and my force was painted, I got 5 campaign points to start. I gave my Bricks +1 RCA, my Esper +1 craft, and Fiddler got +1 Nrv and Medic.

Round One: vs Dravani.
The scneraio was Resupply, essentially fighting over buildings to loot. Trent's Crew was: Bride, 4-5 Baggers, 2 Volkoda, 2 Wraiths, 2 Souless, and 4-5 Shamblers.

Nominally the game had deactivated gun turrets that our hackers could control, but that was just a roll for Trent to fail every turn. My hackers stayed away from the HPT because there was the Bride and Vokodas cruising up that flank. I put a serious amoutn of firepower into them and they went down, but the baggers and shamblers ran right up the middle.

My fiddler basically took the Souless out of the game with a suicide flamer run that ended up with him living. That was because the Baggers and Shamblers went into the middle where he had been, and beat up on the Fists, the Maven, and the Ghosts.

In an act of desperation, I moved the Esper up and rolled for Volcano know it'd catch my Bricks and my surviving Fist as well. I managed to pull it off and set everyone but the Fiddler, the Bride, and two Shamblers on fire. Five Baggers standing there screaming "Make it stop, it burns!".

I then followed up with the Fiddler who flamed the Bride and the last two Shamblers. It what would be the crucial roll of the game, I did just one wound shy of putting the Bride into Critical Damage. The next control phase, she put the fire out and charged the Fiddler. The baggers also put out the majority of their flames.

From there it was all downhill. All I had left was one Brick (the other was on fire) and my Esper. I tried in vain to shoot the Bride with the minigun, but she was just too dodgy.

So win for the Dravani. Trent rolled to see what type of buildings he found. Essentially he could take equipment out of the back of the Outbreak book, either ghost decks & software, cybernetics, or guns & equipment, depending on what he rolled. He got the Ghost Parlor and upgraded his Wraiths to some better decks. I picked up some campaign points, but honestly can't remember on what I spent them.


Round Two: vs CSO.

The scenario was the Beacon, which was getting inside a locked door to send out a homing beacon to bring the shuttle. Oh yeah, it was guarded by toxic zombies, with more zombies coming on during later turns. It was actually designed to be a short game to prevent people from just killing the enemy and winning by default.

Scott's CSO was on loan from me, so I knew the Crew well and it was tough. Marshal, 4 Peacekeepers + a major, 5 CSO troopers plus a Sergeant and Flamer trooper, a Technician, and a Field Engineer.

The field was set up so that the entrance to the objective building was down a wide street. There were some sandbags, but let me tell you, that's not enough against a CSO gunline.

So the early turns was us manuevering and killing zombies (rather quickly, actually). My Fists ran up (in teams of 2), killed the Marshal, then got gunned down. Not to worry, I thought, and sent in the second Fist squad. One got beat down by CSO in melee and the other failed to kill a single guy.

Crap.

The upside was that I managed to hack open the door and then put the second Ghost (with his wonderful Sneak ability) right by the front entrance. I won initiative next turn and resisted the urge to try and lay down a beating. Instead I walked inside and activated the Beacon.

So I picked up a quick win with a low casualty count. Still can't remember the advancements I gave to people other than I gave the Esper the +4" bonus to her Craft powers, thinking how much fun it'd be with Jaunt.


Round 3: vs APAC
The mission was Escape. The premise was simple: get on the shuttle by turn 6 and it'd takes off. Hackers inside the shuttle could speed up the countdown while hackers outside could slow it down. Oh and did I mention the zombies? The start coming on from the sides, with extra ones coming on behind the Crews who lost last round ("they're right behind us!")

That was Manny's plight. He was playing my APAC crew, but the build was exactly the same as his that had gotten lost at home. It was: Arashi, 2 Panthers, 2 Senshis, Yureii, 4 Enforcers w/Lt. and Heavy, 4 Enforcers with Shotguns. Manny had won Round 1 and gotten some extra guns & equipment. So his shotgun enforcers had smoke grenades and his Yureii had a shotgun.

This was an annoying game with a funny ending. The annoying part was Manny and I each had terrible luck for half the game, just not the same halfs. My first half was so frustrating I was banging my head onto the table. His was the second half.

Remember that extended Craft range for my Esper? Well that's not all that impressive when you fail 5 of 7 Craft rolls, needing a 6+ on two dice. Meanwhile, Manny claimed the shuttle early parking his shotgun enforces inside while the rest of the Crew caught up. He moved his other Enforcer squad onto the elevated platform I'd bought at the flea market the night before.

This would prove to be a mistake as zombies came on behind him. While they couldn't operate stairs and a ramp, the zombies did trap the Enforcers on the platform. Meanwhile, the zombies gang tackled a Panther and eventually dragged the robot down by sheer weight of numbers. The Enforcers on the ramp would whittle down the zombies but it'd be too little too late.

Meanwhile inside the shuttle, my fiddler and Fists engaged in a battle of attrition. There was charging and flaming, followed by shotgun blasts and Arashi psychic powers. My Fists let me down again. One got stabbed in the back by an acrobatic Senshii. On my left flank, the zombies charged my Maven, eventually bringing him down and zombifying him.

Then Manny's luck turned. My Esper managed to jaunt her Bricks to short range. Despite cover and with Storm Shield, a short range minigun is nothing to be ignored. Five dice, all coming up 5 or 6. Dead Arashi.

The zombies charged my Bricks, killing an zombifying one but my Esper jaunted right into the shuttle. Inside, a badly wounded Fist and a Ghost fought a Senshi while my other Ghost fought and killed the last shotgun Enforcer. The Fists lost the combat with the Senshi, but thanks to Manny's ability to only roll 1 wound (which became a theme), no harm. Then my Ghost wins combat and kills the teenage super soldier.

At the end of the turn, the shuttle lifts off, but not before a zombie manages to come aboard, killing my Ghost. I'd won with 3 models in the shuttle but decided to roll it off to see if the people survive or if the shuttle would spread the zombie plague.

My Brick minigunned one of the zombie but the other was unhurt. It charged the wounded Fist, killing and zombifying him. Then it was a lather, rinse, and repeat: I'd Jaunt out of combat with a zombie and shoot, but not kill all of them, then the surviving zombie would charge in. I'd jaunt out of combat and shoot...

This went on for 2-3 tense turns before the last zombie was killed, leaving my Ghost, Brick, and Esper. We joked about how that was right out of a horror movie, minigun blazing away in a pressurized shuttle and all... It was an entertaining end, and a fun game, but frustrating for us both at points.

Honorable mention to the table over where Trent and Scott faced off. Here's some advice: if zombies are coming on behind you, don't form a gunline 8" from the board edge. The Dravani got off the table with all but his Volkoda and one other model. Meanwhile, the entire CSO force was zombified. They literally ran out of zombie models.

So the Dravani carried the day, escaping from Serenity Station almost entirely intact. By the end, two big wins going into rd 3, the Dravani were scary. Both the Baggers and the Shamblers had Scout to go with the Volkoda, so their motto was "all up in yer grill, byotch!".

I was extremely pleased with how the tournament worked out. Most the games were close, and everyone had fun. I just wish we'd had more people. Anyway, second half of Saturday report will come later.

Game Count: 7.