High Rise to Hell...First Encounter - Black Hummers

High Rise to Hell, the supplement for All Things Zombie contains 13 scenarios. They can be played individually but are best played in sequence. Here' an AAR of the first one called Black Hummers.

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Two black Hummers and a gas truck roll up to the gas station. Four heavily armed black clad figures exit the vehicles as do two men, in coveralls, from the gas truck.  

Occasionally a few zeds wander over to the gas station but the armed men make short work of them. If you’re close enough and know what you’re hearing, you can make out the muffled sounds of their suppressed weapons. Not absolutely silent but good enough to keep from attracting every zed in the neighborhood.

They’re quick, the two “gas men”. It’s over in a matter of minutes. The truck is full, the black clad figures enter the Hummers and the three vehicles roll off into the night.

I choose to play the Crew as pre-generated  in the book. They match up to the Indiegogo figures soon to be released by Highlander Studios but could be any figures you desire. The Crew are 5 characters, one of each class, and I choose Nate, the military man as my Star Leader (Rep 5).

The rest are a Ganger, Survivor, Police Officer, and Civilian, all Rep 4 Grunts. The Encounter starts on a 3 x 3 table with an intersection down the middle. The gas station is in section 3. The Hummers enter in section 4 while Nate and the Crew enter section 9.

Two PEFs are dropped in the intersection (section 5) and are both resolved as add one to the Encounter Rating which now becomes a 5.

The last PEF is resolved as 10 Zeds.

Each Hummer has twin SAWs mounted on the roof and accessed through the sunroof. They make quick work of the Zeds but attract more.

After the gas truck reaches the station the security teams exit the Hummers and start plunking Zeds with silenced weapons, limiting the number that can be generated by gunfire.

I decide not to engage the Hummers but instead play Peek a Boo. In this mechanic one character attempts to establish visual contact with the Hummers without being seen.
If successful the Crew will be able to follow the Hummers back to the high rise unseen.
If unsuccessful the security teams see the character and a firefight will start. The In Sight is used by the one character and against three security operatives picked at random. The nice thing about HRtH is that all NPCs Grunts are pre-generated for you.

Nate wins the In Sight, contact is made, and after the gas truck loads up, Nate and the Crew can follow them back to Pro-Corp without being seen.

Overall a quiet game  in part to two of the PEFs being resolved as increase the ER by one point. Luckily Nate was far enough away from the security teams so when Zeds were generated they weren't close to the Crew. If the PEFs were resolved as Gangers or Survivors the resulting firefight would have generated many more Zeds than what showed up.

Next Encounter....Arrival.

High Rise to Hell - ATZ Supplement out next week.

For more info follow the link.
Back Cover

Yahoo Group Screwed Up

Let's see how this plays out in the next couple of days but we could be going somewhere else if it doesn't get fixed.

Alien Fighters could be minis

Here's a preview of some of the pre-generated boxers in Alien Fight Night. The nice thing is you could import the boxing attributes into New Beginning if wanting to use them as characters as well as fighters.

Alien Fight Night Part Two. Fallout after the Fight

This takes place immediately after the fight.

Click the pictures to make it easier to read.

Alien Fight Night AAR - Whack Job and Pretty Boy

Sometimes when you play Two Hour Wargames things don't go as you expect them to. Alien Fight Night, a game within a game for 5150 New Beginnings, is just one such game. I chose two fighters from the pre-generated tables and it was a mismatch on paper. But sometimes you have to go back and write the story after it plays out. Take a look...

Click the pictures to see larger versions making it easier to read.

Click here to see ....Why Ashlynn Cooper shouldn't be at the fights.

Tolero Racing a 5150 New Beginnings AAR

I really want to expand and deepen Hew Nope City by doing supplements, new adventures, more aliens etc.  I want to make some quick and easy games that can be used inside Encounters in New Beginnings to breathe life into the city. I am also working on an update to Wire to Wire the horse race game and thought, hey, I have some cool Tolero cavalry from Black Hat Miniatures so what the heck. Why not?

So here you are, Tolero racing just outside New Hope City. Click each picture for the story and to make them easier to read.

An Affair of Outposts; Portugal 1810

I'm working on an Encounter for an upcoming game. The working title of the game is "Baker Rifle" however the published name will likely differ.

"Baker Rifle" takes the "Long Rifle" game play and ports it to the Peninsular War. In the game player's will command a section of infantry or cavalry while having to contend with the enemy, guerrillas/bandits, deserters, provosts, and hunger. Encounters will include the usual scouting, raiding (as attacker or defender) and a few other things like foraging and outpost duty.

This is my first go at the outpost encounter. The idea is that my section has been tasked with a section of regiment's piquet duty. This game takes place at night.

My force consists of one sergeant and sixteen other ranks. The sergeant and twelve men have taken up position by the farm house. Actually six of the men are sleeping in the farm house while the sergeant and six others remain at arms outside.

The other four men have been set out as videttes.

Brigadier Antoine Fortune de Brack, wrote that at night it is better to keep your videttes in hollows rather than on heights. In this way any approaching enemy will be silhouetted against the skyline as they approach.  As the dear Brigadier knew more about the subject than I could ever hope to, that is how I deployed the four men assigned that duty. While it would be hard to make a hard and fast rule for how sighting at night should be handled in a game, I decided to go with opposed challenge tests for sighting an enemy for the first time. If the figure being sighted is on higher ground than the figure trying to spot him there is a positive modifier for the spotting attempt. The  reverse also holds true so that trying to spot a figure at a lower height is more difficult. 

Having deployed my forces it was time to deploy the PEF's. One Possible Enemy Force was deployed per two foot of table frontage, giving three for this game.

That on my left was in line of sight but out of night time spotting distance of 12". The center and left PEF's were both out of sight behind hills and beyond spotting distance.

One last thing to mention is that for this game all light infantry and grenadiers were rated Rep 5, while all line infantry would be Rep 4. This allowed me to concentrate on play and not worry about what figure had what Rep. 

The enemy force table was heavily weighted to light infantry and grenadiers as these would be the most likely troops to be pushed forward first when moving on the enemy. 

I also rated all of the PEF's as Rep 3 to represent the difficulties of night movement and coordination.

The game started with the center PEF moving onto the hill top and into spotting range of my videttes.

 This turned out to be a party of 12 or so voltigeurs, the leader silhouetted against the skyline. One of the ever alert Rifles fired dropping his man and signalling that all was not well.

 Two of the Frenchmen moved to take care of their fallen leader while another two returned fire. One musket misfired but the second severely wounded the Rifleman.

 Following on from this the videttes fell back while the sergeant sent one man to wake the sleepers and set the other five out in a fan towards the front. Figured it was too soon to send word back to the grand guard without having assessed the threat.

 Firing continued and casualties fell here and there. The two flank PEF's remained fairly motionless for a few turns an then the left flank PEF moved forward.

This turned out to be a party of six grenadiers.

The right flank PEF also moved forward but no one was close enough to spot it.

At this point a couple of random events occurred with one affecting the French and one the British.

The voltigeurs inexplicably retired back behind the hill, giving my skirmishers a  much appreciated break.

Then my left most figures, blood up apparently, single-highhandedly charged the grenadiers, only t receive rough handling from their sergeant...

...and an escort back to French lines.

The voltigeurs reappeared and the firefight commenced afresh.

Casulties continued to mount and men were compelled to leave the firing line to prevent their capture.

The grenadiers continued to advance and were soon firing as well.

Another random event found one of my men getting lost in the darkness and wandering about quite uselessly.

Still the grenadiers were stopped in their tracks and the situation began to stabilize. 

That was when the right PEF was revealed to be a party of line infantry.

Now outnumbered two to one, I sent word back to the grand guard and made ready to withdraw.

The French proved none to willing to pursue and my section faded away into the darkness.

My losses were three other ranks wounded and three missing presumed captured. The French lost a similar number killed and wounded.

It was a fun game that spurred some other ideas regarding night combats in the game. The combat rules themselves worked well although here to there is an opportunity for tightening things up a bit.

Bob