Last Days: Gas Station Rescue Mission

For the recent game of Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse we played a modified version of the Rescue Mission in the rulebook. None of the our teams have rolled up the 'captured' result on the injury table. So we turned it into a scenario with NPC enemies.

In the center of the boards was a gas station guarded by four NPCs with the 'soldier' character stats. Each were armed with a combat knife and a surplus assault rifle. A leader were inside the building guarding a prisoner (that if rescued would join the warband). The three other soldiers were patrolling the perimeter.

The soldiers would go in a random direction on a patrol route, the reacted to noise (allowing us to sneak in staying out of LOS), shoot at current thread or go lock and load.

We've decided after this game, to park LD:ZA until the expansion Seasons is coming out, and then pick it up again.

Prisoner
We used a nice resin model from Ramshackle Games (part of a set of four) for the prisoner. I've painted the model on the day of the game (took 3 minutes) and made a setting neutral base on it.

Setup
We played on a 3'x4' setup. I've been wanting to try this setup of buildings for some time, so it was nice actually doing it. Worked really well. Check out the Modern Terrain Hub for step-by-step posts about most of the terrain used here.

My warband setup close, hidden behind containers and a large truck. Wanting to get in close while staying hidden.

A soldier on patrol around the gas station. Soldiers are Mantic Games Mars Attack marines.

A soldier was patrolling the roof, with a good overview of the battlefield - this was probably gonna be the guy to sound the alarm.

A couple of 3d printed humvees are parked outside. actually small Team Yankee vehicles made bigger in scale.

The brutal soldier leader (inspired by that guy in 28 Days Later) guarded the prisoner.

Second guard on perimeter patrol.

My opponent was so unlucky that the roof guard went straight towards him and spotted on of his guys. If the guard wasn't taken out, he would start shooting and alert the other soldiers.

Bai Wu's team moving in towards the gas station.

As planned I moved forward in cover of the containers.

Bai Wu had found a silencer in the previous game, a one use item. And firing a silent burst from his Military SMG, he managed to take down the rooftop guard. This was a perfect and hard shot, that prevented the soldier from shooting and raising the alarm.

Having a clear path to the roof, my opponent wanted to get up there. The roof had an ambush opportunity on the soldier guarding the prisoner and some supplies as well.

With great speed Sam the Firefighter ran from cover, wanting to bring down a guard with a swing from his fire ax, quickly to prevent the alarm from being raised. He was unsuccessful in his attempt and was now locked in combat with the soldier.

Dr. Hendricks sneaked up on the roof, trying to get a clear and close shotgun blast off into the soldiers heads.  He missed.

Both teams trying to get to the prisoner. My opponent going in through the roof and me aiming for the garage gate.

With all the shooting suddenly going on a lot of zombies started entering the battle field from all directions. We really rolled a lot of sevens. Soon we would be boxed in, and it would be a completely different kind of fight.

With my fire fighter and the soldier being locked in close combat, my opponent started firing a the too - bringing down my guy. He then ended in a firefight with the soldier.

My opponent brought extra fire power to the roof, trying to bring the soldier down, but he moved into cover.

Duncan Atkins being well protected in a suit of riot gear engaged and killed another guard.

Ian is trying to keep the rear clean, for his team to evacuate the prisoner - but more and more zombies came swarming in.

From my side zombies came in as well.

It turned into a small herd. Constantly we rolled 7+ on even the small noise rolls.

Frederick Lewis jumps through the roof window to end the leader of the soldiers.

Duncan Atkins jumps through a window, to aid his mate in bringing down the soldier through melee.

Seeing all the zombies moving in, and haven been beaten in the race for the prisoner - it was time to get out of dodge. No reason to risk my team attacking into a building. 

The Ace of Spades - to your face.

Lots of zombies closing in on Bai Wu's retreat route as well.

Time to extract the prisoner. As my team had retreated it was relatively safe for these guys to extract him. He joined up with the crew afterwards.

Retreating is requires a bit of tactic in the game. You can't shoot too much, as new zombies are entering from the closest edge - so they might show up in front of you. And carrying supplies some of your dudes will get slow. All my team managed to get out safely though.

After action
This was a very good game and using NPCs worked really well. Now we've putting Last Days aside until we have Seasons in our hands. Getting new challenges and rules in that will be very cool.

The survivor ended up joining my opponent - and poor Toto (the dog) was left as a house dog, staying at the refuge never to go on missions again. The poor dog had lost both action points through leg injuries and was traumatized (shell shocked) through action. So he really wasn't worth much anymore.

My team managed to find a Sarge nearby and hire him. Most likely this guy was marooned or ditched by the soldiers we were fighting. He'll be a nice addition to the team with his cool starting skills.