Yuma Proving Ground - Game 2 - Background

Zone Alfa Game 2

I was in the Easy Does It Roadhouse and wondering how I was going to get out of the place without being eaten alive when Andy Donovan strode into the joint with Police Woman Petra Stanislav. He looked at Stanislav and she nodded in my direction and they both ambled over. Donovan looked at me and then addressed the immaculate woman across the table, saying “I know who this is but might I have the pleasure of knowing who you are and why you are sat opposite a Vagabond”.

 Katie Monk smiled her hard but winning smile and said “I work for the Global Tribune, I met Mr Black and some of his associates back in 18, they helped me on a job, and my name’s Ms Monk, but you can call me Katie”.

“I’m down here on a story but Mr Black isn’t being very helpful, he keeps talking about a confidentiality agreement he signed with Homeland Security and he seems to think they are scarier than I am”, she smiled again. Captain Andy Donovan smiled right back at her, “Well Katie that’s why I’m here as well, Homeland Security are not the most communicative of organisations and I was expecting to get a little help from Vincent as to what he’s been involved in recently. I tried to look small and insignificant, which is difficult for a 6’2” Biker who would like to be a Hell’s Angel’s. “Look” I stammered and played my trump card, the 2 of clubs, “go and talk to Silas, if anyone knows what is going on in the desert, it’s Silas”.

Silas, on the left and his brother Bull.

They live closer to the Yuma Proving Ground than anyone else and they refused to move when the Army came to enforce the Exclusion Zone. The small patrol of a corporal and a couple of men backed off when Silas waved his shotgun around in their general direction and they moved on to more amenable homesteaders.

When you live off grid, sometimes you fall through the cracks and the Army had lost track of the fact that two old men were still out there and hadn’t gone back to ensure they moved out.

“And where might I find this Silas” Captain Andy Donovan enquired of me. “I know Sir” chipped in Stanislav, I think she might have taken a shine to big Andy “he’s only a couple of hours from the wire, it’s a bit of a walk but I can take you there”.

Donovan as you may remember is Senator McGivvens chosen Law Enforcement Officer and heads up the recently inaugurated Special Operating Detection & Investigation Team in charge of security in the outer zone.

He might be in charge of S.O.D.I.T. but was getting very little cooperation and even less information from Homeland Security and felt he needed to know what was going on in the Zone he was guarding.

He’d brought a small but hand picked cadre of men with him and he’s taken them, along with some of the local law enforcement team on a Recon mission to find Silas. His aim is to circumnavigate Homeland Security and get into the zone himself to take a look and assess the situation first hand.

He’s explaining to James Lamont and Diaz that they need to protect his back door. “I don’t have much faith in this bunch of clowns who call themselves Law Officers, we’re going into a dangerous situation and I want a couple of reliable men out here for when we return.

This is the bunch of clowns he’s referring to, they’re members of the police force in a small town and not used to this sort of emergency. As it turns out, no one is!

Behind them is a watchtower and Aguila is instructing Walter and Norman to man the tower. She is afraid of heights otherwise she would have taken this prestigious position. As it is she decides that Big Jim Floyd should remain on the ground. An unkind person might wonder if that is so Jim can provide some protection for her, should it be needed.

The outer fence around the new exclusion zone had been erected very quickly and consisted of a double ring of wire and a beaten zone between them. There are no gates near where Donovan is going in and he doesn’t want to cut the wire for obvious reasons.

This is just a gratuitous shot to show the watch tower.

This is the team he’s taking in with him, Willhelm Schmidtt and Hans Ludenstein are the other part of his hand picked body of men. Both armed with pump action shotguns, B.A. Pistols and a truncheon. In addition they have a medikit each, something they would be grateful for.

Petra you’ve met, she has a pistol and truncheon, also a pair of handcuffs for those dark lonely nights, in spite of her youth she’s a good cop, best in her year and a crack shot as well.

If you’ve got this far you may pause and wonder what a news crew is doing at this place, at this time, and you’d be right to wonder at that.

It is, as usual, a long story, Katie Monk with her back to us but her face to the camera knew stuff…..stuff she’d not been allowed to print in the newspaper and she’d a score to settle. So in return for a solemn promise from the Law, she told Captain Donovan stuff……stuff that if some other Lawmen found out she’d passed on, she would find out just how scary Homeland Security could be. In return for this information Donovan had decided he’d better keep her close.

He’s explaining about rules of engagement to Big Freddie who is Katie’s bodyguard and private security. “You don’t shoot anybody or indeed anything unless I give you a direct order, have you got that” Freddie looks bored and nods, he knows that if he was to count the bodies he’d shot, it would need a few more fingers and toes than he currently had. That’s without the “things,” that would need a few more fingers and toes.

Donovan didn’t think he needed to give the same lecture to Katie Monk but he was wrong, although she would have taken no more notice than Freddie did.

In the background or I suppose it’s really the foreground Donald shoots footage of the exchange. He’s under strict instructions that everything will be censored by Donovan. Donald will only take his instructions from Katie so isn’t worried by the censorship.

In the background the men and women who do the hard lifting are lifting the pair of ladders into place so that they can cross the first fence.

Donovan recognises that Freddie is probably the most experienced man on the expedition, and he’s not part of Donovan’s team either, which makes him more expendable than the others. So he puts Freddie on point, flanked by Hans and Schmidtt.

Freddie knows the score and also knows his own capability so isn’t worried by this.

Donald Tronji gets a last shot of the crew heading off into the desert. He’s already got the film layout planned, I counted them out and I counted them in. I know it’s been done before he thinks, but that was a long time ago, no one will remember that…..surely.

As they head towards their destination the three at the back seem to be bunched up more than is tactically wise but some times the women gravitate towards a handsome man, although Andy isn’t a handsome man, he is big and that might just suffice.

Yuma Proving Ground - Aftermath

This is the concluding part of a three part story and if anyone reads it then it should be in this order.

Part 1     Part 2  Then this one, the 3rd Part

LOOTERS ARRESTED

Police and National Guardsmen assisted by the U.S. Army have arrested a gang of looters near the Yuma Proving Ground, they are currently awaiting processing in Fort Huachuca. A spokesman close to Senator McGivvens has confirmed there will be a zero policy of tolerance towards any looting in the area and Government Agencies have been granted special powers of arrest and internment until the Emergency is over.

McGivvens has allocated funds to set up a Special Operating Detection & Investigation Team to combat further incursions into what is now known locally as “The Forbidden Zone”

Captain Andy Donovan has been seconded from his previous assignment as Police Chief of Little Whiskey to head up this crack force, in retirement since the Mabel Street Mob gunned him down in the famous Little Whiskey Bank Raid he says he’s raring to go and I quote “You can’t keep a good man down”. He is also quoted as saying “with age comes experience”, or it might have been “with experience comes age”.

Captain Andy Donovan just before being shot by members of the Mabel Street Mob.

Captain Andy Donovan just after the cowardly act.

He’s had an illustrious and varied career making his reputation as a successful lawman leading the famous Tail Feathers Roadhouse Raid, capturing one of the Mabel Street Mob in a brilliant dawn attack. Unfortunately they were rescued when he was in charge of transferring them to the State Penitentiary but as he said at the time….“sh*t happens”. It also happened when he was in leading a raid by the Revenue men and got badly bitten by a dog, but as he said at the time….“sh*t happens. His crowning glory though was arresting Alexandria Lorne the well known business woman and smuggler in the Uranium Hand Off. On her way to the police station she was heard to say……“sh*t happens”.

Taken on the morning of the Tail Feathers Roadhouse Raid, Donovan with a crack squad of fellow officers.

Andy Donovan leading the Revenue Agents in the Ozark Mountains, just before being bitten by the dog.

I put down the Yuma Gazette and pondered over the last few days.

We had been in the Fort Huachuca prison block for 24 hours and 35 minutes when a guard roused me out of solitary and led me along a dark grey corridor into a brightly lit room. A man in a black suit was sitting behind a small table. He looked me up and down with distaste and said “Sign this and we can go”

“Go….go where” I asked not liking the sound of this at all. “Florida, Tahiti, Home, I don’t know, and I don’t care, sign this and I’ve done my job” he snarled. This was the first time I’d met Captain Andy Donovan and he didn’t seem to like me, or maybe bikers in general.

“It’s a waiver and a confidentiality agreement” he continued. “You forget everything you saw yesterday including the people from the Asylum and we’ll forget that you shot and killed a little girl and her family”. “They were zombies” I blurted out, “not from an Asylum”. “Don’t be ridiculous” he snapped, “there’s no such thing as Zombies and if the men in White Suits get brought into this, you will be the one in an Asylum”.

The door opened and Ulrika walked in, “Just sign it” she said and I did.

It turned out that Ulrika and Desire had entered Ebenezer’s Bar just as the Authorities arrived, she’d taken some pictures of the Zombie corpses with her phone, before searching the bar for Alice, you remember Alice, this story is about Alice. Recovering Alice and some bottles of Malt Whiskey to help ease everyone’s pain and a gas mask, for no good reason, they left quietly and weren’t discovered by the search teams.

Threats to release the photos, footage from the surveillance camera that was still transmitting to Franks laptop and a smart lawyer meant she was able to do a deal. Silence in exchange for freedom.

No one has heard from the looters since the incident, they obviously didn’t have Ulrika on their case.

So we’re all out good behaviour, some more battered and bruised than others. Incidentally Big Dave pulled through with just a scar, a lucky 6 that he’s particularly grateful for.

Eight Ball and his father have never stopped reminiscing about the Pool Table that’s languishing in the Bar, the best in Arizona.

I keep wondering what Zombies were doing wandering around Ebenezer’s Place, had they heard of the best pool table in Arizona, seems unlikely.

Big Dave keeps showing everyone his scar and says getting shot ain’t so bad, we should all try it.

Somethings brewing and someone, sometime, is bound to suggest we go and take another look…..I might just go with them.

OK that’s a wrap.

In Campaign terms we used 3 medikits $825, 5 Electric Juice potions $550 and 2 grenades $300 Total $1675 and gained Salvage worth $350 and a gas mask worth $200 Total $550.

I’ll have to read about Anomalies….they seem to be worth cash money, otherwise we aren’t going to be able to pay our bar tab at the Easy Does It Roadhouse, let alone the one at Ferret’s All Night Pool Hall.

Thanks for reading and it's always encouraging when someone leaves a comment.

Cheers

Yuma Proving Ground - The Action

I don't think I mentioned in the first post about the Yuma Proving Ground background but I actually bought a set of rules, Zona Alfa. Set in some dystopian Russian universe after a second Chernobyl that didn't go well. It's based on a computer game that I've never heard of, let alone played,  this was my first game using the core rules and I make some reference to that during the report. If you're familiar with the rules this will make some sense but if you're not just ignore my rambling. I originally posted on a forum that uses the rules and so was using that as a way of checking my understanding of things that didn't make sense to me at the time.

The rules state, WUSIWUG – Each team will have a veteran leader and 3 to 9 other members – game board is 3’ or 4’ square – game duration is 4 + 1D3 turns long. Well this is my game and I’ll have none of that dictatorial nonsense from any rules writer.

Everyone has a pistol, this is Arizona after all. Some have knives, chains and in the spirit of what you see is what you get I think 3 of them had grenades, although they only had 1. Bubble carries a pump action shotgun and not much else, Vincent and Big Dave have shotguns as well as multiple other weapons. They don’t subscribe to Bubble’s minimalist approach. Babe carries a huge revolver and a spiked war hammer, I think she’s from Games Workshop so is obviously spikey but she looks cool.

Three of them had pouches of some sort and these contained medical kits, you know the sort of thing, a strong antiseptic like bourbon, to relieve the pain, a cork, to push into a wound and stop the bleeding, a bandage, to elicit sympathy from the female members of the crew. That sort of equipment.

You may remember we weren’t allowed to join the Hells Angels, we don’t discuss it because it’s a bit embarrassing but they said we weren’t tough enough. Everyone is green or inexperienced and we don’t have a leader, well that’s not strictly true. Fast Freddie who is a bit of a poser, he carries twin colts in a western rig and Big Willie vie with each other to take the gang leader role but we all know that Ulrika is the Brains as well as the Beauty in the gang. Of course she can’t be the leader because she’s a girl.

There are 3 character levels in the rules, inexperienced characters take 1 action per turn, hard men take 2 and veterans take 3. Being green is a bit limiting.

Arriving at a barrier in the road, Freddie said “It looks like they don’t want us to go any further”. Big Willie wanted to know what Quarantine meant. Both of them were looking a little dubious about the quest to rescue Alice.

“Don’t be ridiculous” said Ulrika, “If we meet anyone we’ll just tell them we came in from the south and didn’t see the signs. They haven’t completed the fence yet so there’s nothing to keep us out”.

“Are you sure about this” said Fast Freddie when they came to the next sign.

“Don’t be such a Jessie”, retorted Ulrika, “we’re not looting, we’re rescuing Alice and if there’s any beer left in the bar….well technically that belongs to Eight Balls dad so we can’t be looting something that’s already ours. Well….Ebenezer’s and he said we could have it, didn’t he Eight Ball”

Eight Ball looked embarrassed, shuffled his feet in the sand and muttered “well I didn’t tell him we were coming in case he wouldn’t allow it”.

Ulrika had a rather disbelieving look in her eye and I could see she finally understood why we hadn’t been allowed to join the Hell’s Angels, we would be more at home in the Hells Grannies Arizona Chapter. With a slight, incredulous shake of her head she turned and moved off the road, aiming to arrive at Ebenezer’s place from the south. We followed.

The rules call for a square board and starting 6” in from any edge. This board is 0.8 x 1.2m, so roughly the right area but wrong shape. Our objective is the Bar and the Hot Spots are the Gun Shop and Dora’s Crib, I didn’t place them symmetrically so rolled a dice to determine my start point, the white marker. Then rolled another dice to determine the number of turns the game would last, 6 turns. That means some event will happen on the start of the 7th turn that ends the game.

Then I realised that all my characters were rookies and only have 1 action per turn, they have effectively a 6” move so can’t get to the Bar, search it and get off the table in 6 turns. My solution was that they would spend the night in the bar and have 6 turns to get inside, neutralise the opposition and search the place before getting down to looting/liberating Ebenezer’s stock of beer and whiskey and having a good time.

Ulrika issued her commands, “Tank, you, Dave, Angie and Harley check out Franks gun shop and get to the Bar as quick as you can”. “The rest of you with me” and she strode off in the direction of the bar like a man whose been in the desert most of the day and has worked up a tidy thirst.

Just as quickly the other group made for Franks. Obviously not because they had a thirst but because Dora Du Fran had told them that the Army and Police were making regular patrols to ensure no one entered the exclusion zone. I imagine once the final zone area has been established they will fence it off to keep people out, but as we still don’t know what they’re excluding us from we don’t know how big an area this will be.

Did I mentioned the rumour mill, well currently the most popular theory was that A.R.S.E. had been carrying out various biological and genetic experiments and these had gone wrong. The A.R.S.E. compound inside the Yuma Proving Ground was a complete no go area, Threat level 3 they said. The whole of the Proving Ground had been evacuated and was considered Threat level 2. The Military were patrolling the existing fence around the Ground but on the outside of it. They obviously wanted to contain something!

There was a new fence under construction but it was a huge undertaking and in the mean time, signs had been erected along a possible perimeter and this whole area was under constant surveillance by armed patrols and constituted Threat level 1.

Meanwhile Harley has arrived at the back door to the Gun Shop and tries the handle of the door, it’s not locked, he turns the handle.

The door wasn’t locked, he pushed it open and was slightly surprised to find there were some other occupants of the shop and they didn’t look particularly happy to see Harley. Facing him was a huge black man, Delmare although he didn’t introduce himself at the time, but he was activated by Harley moving within 3” of him. Well you would be wouldn’t you, some big bloke with a shotgun pokes his head around your door you’re bound to be a little activated. Harley noted 3 other hostile looking people, and I don’t use the term loosely, were in the room as Delmar started to raise one of his two BA Pistols….so Harley shot him.

Harley isn’t the best shot in the world and neither are the rest of the Vagabonds, rookies remember, and he misses. (40% chance of a hit and he misses)

Delmare fires back and he has a 50% chance to hit, Harley takes a bullet some where and rolls around on the ground for a while, his blood mixing with some of the Arizona dust. Big Dave who is stood just behind Harley is a little surprised by the events unfolding in front of him but he brings his shotgun up and blasts away.

He continues to be surprised when Delmare smiles, his homemade armour saves him. Although it was a critical save!

Dave is even more surprised when Pit Bull Billy rushes out from the doorway, yelling and screaming some sort of undulating war cry.

Billy though, has forgotten the golden rule – WUSIWUG, he doesn’t have a gun, just a big length of chain and a whopping big knife. He’s also forgotten that he’s only in a threat level 1 situation and after his bold action running out of the building he has to stop and get his breath before he can start to use his whopping big knife. Did I mention rookies are at a bit of a disadvantage.

He notices, out of the corner of one eye, Angie grinning evilly, she knows the rule writer subscribes to a form of you go, now I go.

But Tank, who is against the back wall of the Gun Shop and right by the window, peremptorily takes the, I go, seriously.

He drops his grenade through the broken window and ducks down below the sill.

I didn’t mention that when generating the threat in the Gun Shop I rolled a 6 which gives me Bandits, or Savages in my case. It also give an Anomaly which Tank has just blown up.

Anomalies are specific to the rules and I don’t really understand what an Anomaly is, I can barely spell it but having never read or played computer games set in the Stalker reality I’m going to have to construct my own version of it the next time one of them survives contact with the Vagabonds.

If Tank had popped up and looked through the window he would have been as surprised as Dave was to see all three Savages still on their feet, although one of them looks a little stunned, as well he might be.

Stunned equals pinned in the rules for those who know about these things.

Donna who is the only Savage who can move, does so and then Angie’s smile gets even wider when at almost point blank range she “pops a cap” into Pit Bull Billy. Is that the right expression? Anyway with a critical success she hits him where his rudimentary armour can’t save him and he drops to the floor, out of the fight, or ooF.

Over with the other part of the gang Fast Freddie has taken a swig of Pollyjuice Potion or Vodka laced with gunpowder, not sure which, but he explodes into action. He reaches the Bar, throws the door open and sees a bunch of rambling shambling creatures whom he recognises as Zombies. Obviously been watching too much late night TV but his nerves are shot due to the Pollyjuice and he fires, hitting one of the creatures between the eyes and it dies….again.

By this time I’m starting to get the hang of activation and he jumps back into the street, using his final action to get out of reach of the threat and within reach of support.

One by one the Zombies shamble out of the building, and one by one they get shot at. Ulrika fires and misses, Desire fires and misses, Fat Willie fires and misses, Vincent fires his shotgun and misses, 3 times, there’s a bit of a thread running through this narrative. Eight Ball and Babe couldn’t get a clear shot and moved to the right.

Bubble fires last and puts an end to this awful missing trend, she hits and kills the little girl. This isn’t going to look good in the papers, or at any subsequent trial.

Donna had moved to the window inside the building, the Savages got the initiative on the next turn and she shot Angie who has no armour and is OOF.

Big Dave rolls a grenade into the building through the open door.

Unfortunately it missed the doorway, hit the wall and rebounded into the middle of his mates. BOOM.

As I’m reading the rules, because the Vagabonds don’t have armour they need a critical success to avoid injury, as lady luck decided, Tank and Angie had critical successes and also passed their will test, so the only casualty is Dave and he’s ooF. Serves him right.

Things aren’t looking too good at this stage.

It doesn’t get any better when Delmore jumps out and Tank fires at him and misses. Big Dave on the ground pulls out his bandaid and sticks it over the wounds from the grenade fragment's and feels a bit better. Inside the building the last Savage, Roberto feels fine now that the ringing in his ears has stopped and he will move next turn.

This is rather complicated, and I probably got it wrong. The Vagabonds have the initiative, Ulrika fired and missed. That zombie moved into contact with her but can’t attack (1 action for threat level). Fast Freddie fired and missed, zombie moved into contact with him but can’t attack. I was sure I’d read something about shooting into a melee but couldn’t find it so I resolved that to fire into a melee, if hit then hit zombie, if miss then test for a hit on your mate.

Fortunately the Vagabonds are really crap shots. Desire fired, missed Zed and then missed Freddie. Eight Ball fired and killed the zed facing Ulrika. Vincent fired his pistol and missed both the Zed and Freddie.

Fat Willie, Babe and Bubble all moved to contact the Zed but can’t attack.

Next turn Tank fires at Delmore who fires back, they both miss. Donna in the building fires at Tank and misses, Roberto runs outside and levels his gun at Tank but can’t fire because he’s only got 1 action.

Back over with the Zombie I’m still confused about combat but everyone missed except Babe who hit with the hammer at +1 damage, so one dead zed.

I’m now in turn 6, Tank wins the initiative and at this point I had Tank take a swift sip of Pollyjuice Potion. The Pollyjuice kicks in and he’s like a wild man. Well he’s like a wild man without the potion but you know what I mean.

He fires at Delmore and misses, he fires at Delmore again and hits him but the shot bounces off Delmore’s armour and he’s not pinned.

Giving up on Delmore he fires at Roberto and hits him. Roberto’s armour saves him but he’s pinned/stunned. That Pollyjuice isn’t working as well as I’d like.

Delmore fires back at Tank, Tank takes it in the gut and goes down ooF.

Big Dave is back on his feet, these Medikits are wonderful things and he’s ready to rock and roll next turn.

Donna comes out of the Gun Shop but can’t do anything else.

Just call me old fashioned but I’d given Pollyjuice to all the males, this is some potion that when you drink it you can perform 3 actions in a turn, a bit like cocaine but faster. Fast Freddie had 2 doses but I didn't give it to the female members of the Vagabonds. We’re still in turn 6 and Ulrika shouts “Go and help Tank, not knowing that Tank was past help but Big Dave could use a hand. Freddie moves two actions and fires, he has 2 guns so fires twice. He misses twice.

Big Willie moves 2 actions and fires at Delmore, Delmore’s armour saves him again but he is pinned. Eight Ball moves 2 actions, fires and misses.

Vincent doesn’t hold with drugs and so only moves slowly, I don’t hold with drugs and so Bubble and Babe also move slowly.

Turn 7 and the Army, Navy and Airforce all arrive at the edge of the board but for some reason, unknown to me now, they didn’t move onto the board until the end of the turn.

That gave Donna the chance to fire on Big Dave, you remember he’s just got up after being shot once. Well she shot him again and he goes down OD (Obviously Dead)

NOOOO screams Eight Ball as he fires at Donna and misses, Willie fires at Delmore and misses, Freddie fires at Roberto and misses. It’s really been one of those days.

Vincent, Bubble and Babe move round the corner of the Gun Shop, ready to open fire on the Savages at their next opportunity.

They are just in time to see the Army, Navy, Airforce, Police and some private contractors de-bus from their vehicles demanding everyone stops shooting and drops their guns.

In view of their overwhelming numbers and the fact that the Vagabonds are vaguely law abiding and the Savages are not as daft as they look, both groups comply.

And that my friends is how I and the rest of the Vagabonds ended up in Fort Huachuca prison block waiting to see our lawyer.

We had two more medikits and so Tank and Angie were saved before being carted off to prison. The Army also had kits and Harley and Pit Bull Billy recovered quickly. Big Dave is in the Operating Theatre and we’re waiting to hear how he’s doing but it doesn’t look good.

Well this probably isn’t the most auspicious opening to a campaign but I think it’s got a lot of potential.