More Insurgents, More Earth

 Zig and I got together for a play-through of Insurgent Earth on Saturday evening. From a rules and order-of-play standpoint, things were a lot smoother for me this second time around. Ziggy had no trouble at all wrapping his head around the mechanics and was pro in no time.

The layout. Today's mission was to be a "Shopping Trip," a pretty simple supply run.

We started from the corner in the park since it had dense terrain features making it easier to hide

Jean Claude checks the first POI, retrieving some electronics - just what the doctor ordered! Unfortunately, he gained the attention of two aliens nearby!

The first of many "Vermin" trouble rolls on the loot tables for us... Since it was still turn 1, we decided the woods were too overgrown to trace LOS.

We heaved a couple crybabies over the next couple of turns to give ourselves space to run!

Monique locates a food cache beneath the tree in the fenced yard, then heads across the street. Teammates stay out of sight behind the police cruiser.

The jig is up! While searching the jeep and stripping two additional useful electronics components, two more free-range aliens appear and cut loose with their blasters, wounding her. The jig is up and the aliens now have full awareness of the tactical situation. No more cat-and-mouse.

Dental assistant Elle gives Monique a hand. Jerome, our other new addition from the previous mission pops three noggins with his sniper rifle from atop the building in the lower left corner.

Jerome gonna do what Jerome gonna do

No picture, but Jean Claude ran over to the POI next to the semi and located some more loot that we were after. Unfortunately, the noise attracted another pair of invaders who'd apparently been napping on the roof of the shop! Elle splats one with her shotgun, standing in the back seat of the jeep.

JC goes a couple rounds with the four-armed freak, eventually making the connection between axe and alien forehead.

We had managed to clear the table of critters, Jerome and Monique's shots were on point. I suggested that we keep looting unit more rapid response units made out lives more difficult.

Well, all we got was a food supply. Monique checked the box in the center of the table and it was empty. Two bots showed up and it was immediately obvious they were now sending their best and brightest. Time to go!

Jean Claude gets nailed twice by a blaster, slowing him down quite a bit. Good thing for him he's quick, moving 7 inches at a go. He's relentlessly pursued by an alien bot.

Monique and Jerome try to get scarce, also pursued by a metal monster.

They make it out by the skin of their teeth. Another successful run!

Another entertaining game. I'm getting the hang of the system and am confident that this'll play well at Southern Front next month. Ziggy enjoyed it - this was his first Stalker7 game; a good test for me as a GM and it gave me a good idea of how things might play out for a group of strangers. I think I need to alter my bad guys a bit, I ran out of vermin much faster than anticipated with all the bad "trouble" rolls. I have ten of the Terminator minis, I'll probably make those the vermin going forward and the orange guys will be the mid-grade baddies. The sniper was impressive, and this time around I got a good feel for the cry babies. We messed up and only had a single med-kit in the group and were fortunate that the wounds didn't start accumulating until we were close to done. No smoke was also challenging, but it was that much better having to come up with new solutions.

Be well and good gaming!