Zona alfa
Making good use of my 15mm Sci-Fi collection
At the beginning of January, I was watching some YouTube when I stumbled across Crusty Colonel’s Zona Krusti battle reports. If you haven’t watched them and you like an irreverent sense of humour, I recommend them. The battle reports got me thinking that I haven’t been making much use of the 15 mm sci-fi figures that I painted last year, and Zona Alfa could change that.
I ordered both the main rulebook and the expansion book, Kontrabrand. Kontrabrand is aimed at solo and co-op play, which is definitely my cup of tea, but I am going to play the basic rules and really get them in my head before I turn to Kontrabrand.
I played a learning game of Zona Alfa today. The rules are not that difficult but I am sure that I made quite a few mistakes but it was a lot of fun. I played the first scenario in the rulebook, The Crossroads at Blyatsk, with only one scavenger team, so it was a little easy but it gave me a chance to try the core rules of the game. I still managed to forget that you gained pinned tokens when you roll critical failures and zone events completely slipped my mind. Still there is always next time.
Battle report
The GMC sent a salvage team into the Alkham Valley Zone to recover sensitive documents from a missing transport.
Lieutenant Mettraux ordered his team to spread out, keeping their eyes open for any hostiles in the area.
Trooper Douglas pushed forward by himself; his impetuous advance woke a group of Alkham Weevils from their lair. The chitinous creatures burst out of a nearby building and charged the lone trooper.
Seeing the danger Douglas was in, Lieutenant Mettraux ordered the rest of the team forward in support.
As Trooper Douglas struggled to fight off the weevils, Penal Trooper K1985-Warsop rushed to his aid. The convicted beer adulterator was urged on by the drug system locked around his neck.
The trooper pulled out of the combat without looking back, grateful to escape the beasts, leaving K1985-Warsop — a man with little left to lose — to face the weevils alone.
K1985-Warsop laughed manically as the Alkham Weevils tried to eviscerate him with their mandibles. A gleam of joy appeared in his eyes as his shotgun blew the mutated creatures apart; their carapaces were no match for its power.
Seeing the way was clear, the technician moved towards the truck where the documents were located. Her presence reactivated the robotic crew, their corrupted coding twisted by the Zone’s influence.
Douglas smiled as he saw the droids slowly power up. He pulled two grenades from his belt and yanked the pins free with his teeth, then launched them towards the bots with practised ease. The explosives arced through the air and detonated in the middle of the droids, blowing three of them apart.
The last droid rushed the technician, the creak of its prematurely corroded joints cutting through the air. Technician Bakhuys drew her pistol and opened fire. The rapid bursts from her automatic weapon bounced harmlessly off the mindless robot’s armour.
Lieutenant Mettraux activated K1985-Warsop’s drug dispenser without a thought for the convict’s well-being. The chemical cocktail burned away any fatigue and drove the penal trooper back into the melee. He fired his shotgun like a man possessed, blasting the robot into fragments. The way was clear for the salvage team to recover the documents.
