7TV Vlad's Army Episode 2

In the second episode "The 8.15 to Eastbourne", the Home Guard are trying to stop Hauptmann Kurtz and his vampires spreading along the South Coast by train.

Stuart and Andy's Home Guard and group of reservists started as close to the station as they could.

Kieron and James' German villains began on the opposite side behind Jones' butchers shop.

The Home Guard leadership rushed to the station and boarded the train before its departure whilst Fraser led the Reservists unit around the houses towards the Germans.  Swarms of bats and crows, along with Totganger zombies, slowly processed while the Half Bloods started moving towards the railway lines.

Hauptmann Kurtz controlled the swarms in a pincer movement and started picking off the Reservists.  Flushed with his success he charged into the unit, killing another Reservist.

Unfortunately Fraser had a butterfly net - an incredibly powerful gadget which instantly stunned Kurtz who was then unable to defend himself from the subsequent charge assault and follow up fight attack from Fraser, and was immediately wiped out in a single turn.

As the Third Act began, the train moved into the last third of the playing area, and the Home Guard prepared to take their turn surrounded by Germans.

And then we broke the Scenario.  Here's how.

The Home Guard had an incendiary device which could be planted on the gasworks and would explode the following turn wrecking the railway track and preventing the villains from escaping.  Since the Home Guard had the initiative in the game (due to their victory in Episode 1) they controlled the Countdown Cards and so were able to take the first turn in the Third Act.  But they were only going to get two turns (unless the villains were particularly generous/naive) so they had to plant the device straight away.  There were rules for boarding the moving train but not for leaving it.

If we said the Home Guard had to use the same rules for jumping off the train, and their second action was moving to the gasworks, they wouldn't be able to plant the device.  So their whole game strategy would be suddenly wiped out.  But if we allowed the Home Guard to move off and straight into contact with the gasworks, they could then set the device, and in the following turn the best the villains could do was move to the device and pick it up.  So the device couldn't be prevented from blowing up, and the villains strategy would be toast.

It looked like a rules discussion was going to resolve the game conclusion which was very unsatisfactory.  That's not what we wanted, we wanted a resolution through gameplay.

So we got rid of the device and decided to fight it out instead.  The Home Guard promptly threw grenades at the gathered Half Bloods and Totgangers, pretty much wiping them all out.

Although one Kommando failed to jump on the train and attack Wilson, the surviving Half Blood and the other Kommando did board the train and attacked the Home Guard, killing Walker and panicking Mainwaring in the last turn, using all the remaining plot points to roll an eleven!

In the final reckoning, the villains had just one Half Blood on the train and with the status on Mainwaring, that earned them 2 Victory Points.  The Home Guard had lost Walker and four Reservists, but the remaining three Reservists earned them their 3 Victory Points for another minor victory.

Our thoughts on this scenario:

1. The initial initiative in this game appears to make a game-winning difference in the Third Act.  If the villains had the first turn in the Third Act, they would have boarded the train, engaged the Home Guard and scuppered any plans for the gasworks to be blown up.  Since they didn't, the Home Guard could either have disembarked and blown up the gasworks unopposed, or (as we played it out) the Home Guard obliterate the villains patiently waiting in groups alongside the track. An alternative might be for the Home Guard to try to press on for the gasworks during the Second Act, and plant the device earlier.  But this Special Rule didn't work for us and we couldn't quite see how to fix it.
   
   
2. With Mainwaring's Leader 2 ability and Fraser's Unit Leader ability, the entire Hero side can be activated with just three plot points. Again contrast with the Germans, who effectively have to leave a large number of extras doing nothing simply to generate plot points for the remainder.  Kurtz can helpfully operate the bat swarms but the lack of any leadership or group ability hampers the villains. In the core rulebook, activated Zombies can Moan to bring on a couple of allies 2", so that might help if we added that to the Totganger.  Another thought was whether they should automatically just shuffle towards the enemy, only requiring plot points to actually do an attack.  Zombies are always in crowds in the movies and we'd like to try and get that feel with them.
   
   
3. We also reduced range to 12" again given the fog in the scenario description.

7TV Vlad's Army Episode 1

Vlad's Army is a Feature Pack for 7TV pitting the characters of Dad's Army against the Fuhrer's vampire fiends. The VHS tape box includes an episode guide, profile cards, gadget and countdown cards, and some counters.

I already had Dad's Army figures and various WW2 Germans and civilians who I rebased to match, and the Feature Pack gave me the push to complete my set of plastic Nazi zombies.

In this first episode, "Bloodbath at Godfrey's Cottage", Mainwaring has sent Wilson with a group of men to investigate reports of something coming down in the woods near Cherry Tree Cottage, where Godfrey lives with his sisters Dolly and Cissy.  The playing area was set up as per the episode guide.  I GM'd with Stuart playing the Home Guard, and Kieron the Germans.

The centre of the board has Godfrey's cottage with a shed, vegetable garden and a greenhouse I just finished.

In the North-East corner, the villains had landed in a German replica of a Horsa glider - a cheap MDF kit recently picked up on Etsy.

Sgt Wilson, the Home Guard and a group of Reservists deployed along the road.

The bonus counters placed around the glider turned out to all be civilians, promptly killed, bitten and zombified by Kieron.  Making use of their speed, his wolves raced around the garden and were engaged by a handful of Home Guard, killing a Reservist before being despatched themselves.

Stuart's troops checked on Dolly and Cissy, leaving them in the care of Private Sponge before setting up a perimeter along the road side of the cottage.  Eventually, the Germans breached the cottage grounds and there was a firefight and some close combat.  Two of the NachtJagerKommandos were killed but the remaining one took out another couple of Reservists.

Another Reservist was transformed into a Zombie following a well-aimed Axis Gas bomb that was lobbed through the window of the cottage.  This new Zombie swiftly turned one of Godfrey's sisters terrifying the remaining civilians still in the room with them.

At the end of the episode, the Home Guard had killed 2 Kommandos, 2 Zombies and 3 Wolves, earning 2 Victory Points for the Kommandos.  The Germans had killed 3 Reservists and zombified one more, but didn't manage to take out either of the co-stars - although Jones was still carrying the wound that Godfrey had repeatedly failed to heal - and so didn't earn any victory points.  This notionally gives the Home Guard a Decisive Victory.

We're hoping to play the rest of the campaign over the Christmas/New Year period.

Some thoughts that other players tackling this scenario may wish to consider.

1. The stated objectives for the Home Guard are to protect civilians and survive the encounter. The Germans are to create as many undead from the civilians and prevent the Home Guard from escaping to raise the alarm.  In our game, 8 civilians in total were revealed and the Germans killed one, changed one into a Half Blood, and another two into Zombies. Two were left free but unescorted with two more in imminent danger from a pair of Zombies in the cottage.  However, the Victory Points table doesn't give any credit for this, so players could just ignore the civilians which rather undermines the scenario.  Consequently, I think the Germans are due a point for their achievements in turning the civilian population resulting in an overall Minor Victory for the Home Guard.
   
   
2. The scenario is at night in fog so I reduced maximum range to 12".  As the villains have very limited range attacks, and the Home Guard generally have 24" range rifles, this balances things up a bit.
   
   
3. "Steal the Scene" can only be done by a Star or Co-Star but the Germans only have Extras in this scenario so I ruled that the Kommandos could use this ability.
   
   
4. There appears to be a huge imbalance in the use of plot points in this scenario.  The Germans are all Extras with no Leader or similar ability and so every figure activated requires a plot point, so at best, only half of them will do something each turn.  In contrast, Wilson's Leader ability along with Pike's "Uncle Arthur" effect means that one plot point can activate the three best characters on the Home Guard side.  I didn't do anything to affect this but will consider for future episodes. Ideas welcome.