My ATZ Campaign - Day 7 - Quarantine Breakout

We last left Vampifan and his two friends, Big Sil and Gap, after they had successfully repulsed an attack from a bunch of looters. They made the joint decision that it would be untenable to stay put, so they loaded up Vampifan's pick-up truck with supplies and made an attempt to depart Mayhem City Centre. Unfortunately for them, City Hall and the Health Department had decided to quarantine their neighbourhood. Police roadblocks were set up in place to prevent any unauthorised personnel from leaving.
This is my version of the Quarantine scenario found in the ATZ:Haven supplement (see p.7). This scenario saw three firsts take place. It was the first time I used my newly made WWG Streets of Legend TLX ground tiles; it was the first time I used the Litko ATZ counters in a game. and it was the first game of ATZ that I played with an opponent. Rob, my gaming buddy (whom Gap is based on) decided he'd like to try out the game. So I let him control the Police, whilst I controlled everyone else.
As written, this is a scenario designed for Police characters. I decided to play it as such but with a special tweak to include team Vampifan. Here is the group of characters that were controlled by Rob -

From left to right they are Ronald Adams, a Rep:5 Veteran; Mike Shelly, a Rep:4 Officer; Frank Messina, a Rep:4 Officer; Stavros Katsirdakis, a Rep:4 Officer; Jennifer Hayes, a Rep:3 Rookie and Robert Kane, a Rep:3 Rookie. Adams was a Star, the rest were Grunts. All were armed with BA Pistols and handcuffs. Their three vehicles contained a shotgun each. You ought to recognise the non-Rookies as West Wind Police Officers, which I reviewed very recently. The two Rookies are very old Citadel cops from their 25mm scale Gangster range (now long defunct). Being 25mm scale they are smaller than today's 28mm scale figures, which made them ideal for portraying Rookies.

The cops were issued with three police cruisers. Unfortunately, I hadn't made any yet (my big bad!) and so I replaced them with what I had available - two police interceptors (classed as sports cars) and a police van.

DAY 7 - QUARANTINE BREAKOUT

The objective of the game for the Police was to prevent anyone from breaking through their cordon. The photo below shows the initial set up. Anything north of the wooden barricades (towards the top of the photo) was in the quarantine zone. Anything south of that barrier (towards the bottom of the photo) was in the clear zone. The encounter took place at night but the area was well lit, so visibility was normal. The Police crew had to last for 16 activations before they'd be replaced by a fresh team. During that time any result of doubles on the activation dice would result in a random encounter (see p.10 of ATZ:Haven). Each encounter could only occur once. Here's where I tweaked it. On turns 1-10 the encounters would be generated as per the rules. However between turns 11 and 14 any encounter would be replaced by team Vampifan appearing. If no encounter was generated between turns 11 and 14 then team Vampifan would automatically appear on turn 15. Obviously, Vampifan's objective was to exit the board from the quarantine zone to the clear zone.

The Police had a number of special rules that would greatly enhance their chances of survival and odds of succeeding in their mission. First up, no zombies would be generated by gunfire or loud noises. Believe me, this gave them one hell of an advantage! Secondly, they had the "Halt! Quarantined!" special rule, which could potentially halt anyone in their tracks - even zombies! I'll explain it in more detail when we come to it. The Police began the game with their pistols holstered. It would take one turn of activation to draw their pistols from their holsters or grab a shotgun from a vehicle.

As usual, any page numbers given refer to the ATZ:BDTZ rulebook, unless otherwise noted.

TURN 1.   ACTIVATION - Police = 6, Others = 4

A slow start. No one moves.

TURN 2.   ACTIVATION - Police = 3, Others = 4

The cops shuffle about and hope this will be a quiet shift.

TURN 3.   ACTIVATION - Police = 6, Others = 1

From left to right, the Police are lined up as follows - Rookie Kane, Rookie Hayes, Officer Katsirdakis, Veteran Adams, Officer Messina and Officer Shelly.

TURN 4.   ACTIVATION - Police = 3, Others = 4

So far so quiet.

TURN 5.   ACTIVATION - Police = 2, Others = 1

This photo shows a different view of the initial set up of the Police. Still no movement.

TURN 6.   ACTIVATION - Police = 6, Others = 3

With an encounter possible one in six times, the Police have been very lucky up till now. Can it last?

TURN 7.   ACTIVATION - Police = 2(1), Others = 2(4)

At last! An encounter! I rolled a 7 on 2d6, indicating either Runners or an Injured Civilian. A 2 on 1d6 determined that the encounter would be two Runners. I diced to see which building they would emerge from - the lawyers' offices or the warehouse. These were frustrated lawyers (both Rep:4 Civilians) who passed 2d6 on the Move Fast test, which allowed them to run 16".

However, as soon as they came within 6" of the Police they had to temporarily halt, whilst the Police made their "Halt! Quarantined!" test. Both sides roll 1d6 per point of Rep and after modifiers are applied, compare results. For the Police, Veteran Officer Adams would make this test. He got to add an extra 4d6 for each additional figure more than the opposition. Each 1, 2 or 3 rolled counted as a success. So it was 9d6 vs 4d6. Rob scored an impressive 7 successes, whilst I could only manage 2 successes. A result of two or more successes for the Police meant that any Unarmed Civilian would obey Police instructions. Naturally, Veteran Adams ordered them to halt and they did. He sent Rookies Hayes and Kane to handcuff the miscreants and put them in the police van. Having a police van with them meant they didn't have to wait 1d6 turns for a one to turn up, which was lucky. Veteran Adams and Officer Katsirdakis took up position behind police interceptor 01, whilst Officer Messina moved behind police interceptor 02. This placed Veteran Adams almost in the centre of the wide road.

                

TURN 8.   ACTIVATION - Police = 3, Others = 1

Rookies Hayes and Kane march their prisoners towards the police van.

TURN 9.   ACTIVATION - Police = 4(4), Others = 4(3)

Another encounter. This time I let Rob roll and he scored an 8, indicating either zombies or a zombie horde. I was praying for a zombie horde and thankfully, the dice gods heard me. Rob rolled a 5 on 1d6, meaning he'd be facing 2d6 zombies. I rolled and scored a 7 - an average result. The rules indicate that each zombie moves 2d6 from the table edge. I wasn't too sure if that meant rolling for each zombie separately or for the horde as a whole. To save time I just rolled once and scored a 6, which coincidentally is the distance a zombie can normally move. All six Police drew their pistols from their holsters. No dummies these cops!

Rookies Hayes and Kane had reached the back of the police van with their prisoners.

TURN 10.   ACTIVATION - Police = 5(6), Others = 5(2)

Yet another encounter. They're coming thick and fast now! This time I rolled for a Sniper with a grudge against cops and firemen. He was armed with a Bolt Action Rifle. He would fire once at a randomly chosen Police Officer. On a 1d6 score of 6, he'd hit the target. As soon as he fired he would disappear.

The dice determined that the Sniper would shoot at Officer Katsirdakis at the far left of the group. However, his shot missed. Even so, Officer Katsirdakis had to take a Received Fire test. Although he passed 2d6, he was still forced to Duck Back because the Sniper outgunned him. Note the use of the Litko Duck Back counter. This was the first time I used one in a game.

Officer Katsirdakis found cover to his left. The blue counter shows where he went. Meanwhile, the horde of zombies advanced. Because the Police rolled a 6 on their second activation dice, none of them could move or fire this turn.

TURN 11.   ACTIVATION - Police = 1, Others = 5

Rookie Hayes placed the first prisoner in the back of the van. Rookie Kane fired once at the closest zombie but missed.

The other four cops fired twice each and in a dismal display of dice rolling, only Veteran Adams and Officer Shelly hit, but they only scored knockdowns on two of the centrally placed zombies. Fortunately for them, the zombies couldn't activate this turn.

TURN 12.   ACTIVATION - Police = 5(6), Others = 5(3)

Yet another encounter, but this time there was no need to dice for it. Remember I said before that any encounter between turns 11 and 14 would be team Vampifan arriving. The speed of his pick-up truck was determined randomly by rolling 3d6. I scored a 5, which quite frankly was pathetic!

The two knocked down zombies stood up and the rest of the horde moved forward another 6". This time, it was the Police who failed to activate.

TURN 13.   ACTIVATION - Police = 3, Zombies = 4, Vampifan = 1

The zombies were forced to halt at the wooden barricades, as that placed them 6" away from the Police. This of course triggered a "Halt! Quarantined!" test. The Police would roll 7d6 (5 for the Rep of Veteran Adams and +2 for having weapons drawn whilst the other side was not armed). The zombies would roll 6d6 (4 for being Rep:4 and +2 for outnumbering the Police by 7 to 5. Why not 7 to 6? Well, Rookie Hayes was out of the confrontation as she was still trying to get her prisoner incarcerated.) Both sides passed 3d6, which resulted in a roll off between the leaders of both groups. They had to roll 1d6 each and add their Rep score to the result. The Police only just won by one point. Very lucky! As a consequence, the zombies had to halt.

Now it was the Police turn and this time the five patrolmen facing the zombie horde all fired twice. Yet again, Rob's dice rolling let him down very badly. Officer Messina and Veteran Adams managed to knockdown the two female zombies at the far left of the group. Officer Katsirdakis rolled double 1 and found he'd run out of ammo! (The black bullet token indicates he is out of ammo) Rob was not a happy bunny, I can tell you! Before anyone reminds me about the Easy To Hit rule (see p.34) I know it. Actually it should be called the Easy To Kill rule but in any case, Rob's dice rolling really was abysmal! Rookie Hayes finally got the second prisoner into the back of the police van.

Finally, this turn, Vampifan got to move. A pick-up truck can normally move 18" in a turn. This is what Vampifan, who was driving the vehicle, intended to do. The blue rinse zombie was in his way and so he had to take a Vehicle Charge test. Being a Star he was allowed to choose how many dice he wanted to pass. Naturally, he chose to pass 2d6. Zombies never take the Being Run Down test and are assumed to have passed 0d6. This meant that Vampifan hit the zombie with an Impact of 5 (the Bash value of the pick-up truck). I rolled a 1 for damage and the blue rinse zombie was totally obliterated. Zombie kill of the day! Vampifan had to take a Lose Control test because of the collision. He passed 1d6 but because he'd only hit a pedestrian he was able to carry on driving (see p.27 and Vehicle QRS).

At this point, Veteran Adams issued a "Halt! Quarantined!" warning against Vampifan. He would roll 7d6 ( 5 for his Rep and +2 for outnumbering team Vampifan by 5 to 3. Once again, Rookie Hayes was not included in the equation). Vampifan would roll 6d6 (4 for his Rep and +2 for being in a vehicle whilst the other side weren't). Big Sil had his Machine Pistol drawn and ready to fire so both sides cancelled each other out for being armed. As before, both sides passed 3d6, which resulted in a roll off between Adams and Vampifan. This time Adams lost by one point, so Vampifan could fire at the cops but instead opted to carry on driving. Again, he had to take the Vehicle Charge test and again, he chose to pass 2d6. The pick-up truck hit police interceptor 01 with a Bash Rating of 8 (5 for its Bash value and +3 for T-Boning the target), whilst the interceptor had a Bash Rating of 3 (its Bash Value) (see p. 25 for vehicle stats and p.27 for the Bash test). Not surprisingly, Vampifan scored 3 or more successes (4 vs 1 was the actual result) and so he plowed through the interceptor his full remaining distance. As Veteran Adams and Officer Katsirdakis were in Vampifan's path, they had to take the Being Run Down test. They passed 2d6 and were able to fire at the driver before dodging out of the way and dropping prone. Unfortunately for Rob, Officer Katsirdakis was still out of ammo, so he couldn't fire and Veteran Adams missed his shot. Marksman ship training would be high on the agenda if the cops survived this encounter! All that was left to do this turn was to see how badly damaged police interceptor 01 was. For that, Rob rolled on the Bash Damage table (see p.28) and passed 1d6. The car rolled over and was irreparable. Ow, costly!

TURN 14.   ACTIVATION - Police = 2, Zombies = 6, Vampifan =4

Vampifan drove off the board, very relieved at surviving this encounter and escaping intact! Veteran Adams and Officer Katsirdakis got back to their feet. The other four cops each fired twice at the zombies. The two rookies missed with their four shots shots. Officer Messina hit with his first shot and scored a knockdown against the zombie with the hook replacing its right hand. Officer Shelley also hit with his first shot and scored a kill against the zombie in the chicken suit (at last!) but missed with his second shot.

TURN 15.   ACTIVATION - Police = 1, Zombies = 4

The zombies charged the police lines and this time the "Halt! Quarantined!" test did not stop them. Rob rolled badly, I rolled well! The female zombie at the top of the photo above and the hook handed zombie stood up this turn. Both sides had to roll on the Meeting Zombies table (see p. 44) with the zombies getting a +1 bonus for passing the "Halt! Quarantined!" test by 1d6. The zombies rolled 1d6 + 4 (3 for the number present and +1 for their bonus), whilst the Police rolled 1d6 + 5 (for the highest Rep involved). The scores ended up 7 apiece, which meant that because the humans didn't beat the zombie score the zombies could melee the humans without being shot at. Veteran Adams, Officer Messina and Rookie Kane were the targets of the zombie attack.

The melee did not go well for the zombies. All three policemen killed their assailants. Officer Katsirdakis reloaded his pistol.

TURN 16.   ACTIVATION - Police = 4, Zombies = 3
On the last turn of the game, the Police finally had some good results with their shooting. Veteran Adams hit and killed the last two remaining zombies with two shots from his Big Ass Pistol.

I hope I've shown how you can tweak a scenario not designed for Survivors so that you can use them anyway. It was a fun game to play, especially as I was playing against an opponent for the first time. Rob enjoyed the game but was convinced that my dice were cursed. Who can blame him? He had a lot of bad dice rolls on the day. On the plus side, he didn't lose any of his force, although I suspect the higher command of the Mayhem City Police won't be happy at him letting someone break out of the quarantine zone! Vampifan did not have a lot to do in this scenario, and Big Sil and Gap had nothing to do, but he did enough to escape from the dangerous city centre and that was his number one priority.

My final thoughts on this scenario are these. I love how my TLX tiles look. This scenario was meant to be played on a 3' square board, which I was able to achieve easily. With my old 2' square boards that would have been very difficult.

The Litko tokens were useful but didn't get much use.

The special rules were clearly designed to make life as easy as possible for the Police. No zombie reinforcements from gunshots and other loud noises gave them a massive tactical advantage. I'll admit to having reservations about the "Halt! Quarantined!" rule. Fair enough, I can see it working against humans, but against zombies?  I doubt it. Still it was only for this one scenario so I'm not complaining too loudly. All in all, Rob and I enjoyed playing the scenario and that's all that counts! Hopefully, we might get some more games played together as It makes a world of difference to have an opponent to game against.