Level 4 - Game 2 - Session 13

Being that this game is a pick up from the 'pause' that we put in place last time round It may be worth catching up on the previous post just to remind yourselves of what went down...

It's not just 'invaders' in the game: Bearded dragon invasion!

We join the marines in what is Area 3 as they see off a Hellknight and sally toward the teleporters, due to the Marines having successfully gained both 'parts' of the pass code in Area 1 they are allowed to (unbeknown to the players) skip ahead and forgo several back and forth excursions to the correct path.

Instead they leap straight into Area 6, and promptly dispatch the hoard of Zomies and Trites that await them the team of three marines now easily overpowering any and all demons that dare get in their way, Mancubus explode in ribbons of gooey ichor at a single well placed grenade from Ace, Marty fells opponent after opponent his sharpened reactions allowing him to deftly bring death to even the mighty Hellnights that spawn before him.

Denz, the commander of the group happy that his deadly pistol seems time and time again to be more powerful than even the shotguns. Soon however, the wear and tear begins to show as the guns the marines are using begin to catastrophically fail, two of the teams shotguns fall apart in the midst of a heated fight-fight.

Map showing the progression of the Marines through the level.

Unperturbed by the malfunctioning weapons Ace grits her teeth and swings round the BFG that she'd been carrying, some convenient Plasma Ammo (Plammo) is slamming into the firing mechanism of the almighty weapon and the blinding blast that she unleashed vaporises several large demons as well as a cadre of lesser more fleshy targets...

The blast so awesome that the force of it plants ace on her ass as she is hit by the backblast suffering heavy wounding and a singed fringe.

Marty, not wanting to be outdone in the high stakes high explosive shenanigans runs into a storeroom (Area 7) and smashes hi fists through the metal casing of a highly explosive barrel, the result is a cartoon like Marty stood with wisps of smoke rising from his armour and dead Zombies splattered in a neat circle around him.

As the team thrust their way into the depths of the level they use up a couple of their respawns, even these mightly fighters are defeated by a constant barrage of demons tearing at them and assailing them with weapons both mundane and supernatural... but with all three marines at full health, the future doesnt look good for the deamons which lay in wait for them ahead.

That's the smile of someone with a BFG!

The team gathers itself before the final section is opened, Ace wielding a now glowing BFG, Marty head to toe covered with blood, gore and smouldering armour and Denz now with his SMG shouldered ready to pick off targets at range.

The final assaault is bloody but brief, the BFG quickly and easily outmatching the last Hellnights of this sector, and the Cyberdemon roars in humiliation as it's final wound is taken by Denz who calmly stands in front of the towering monster and punches is square in the face.

Onward to the final Sector! and the escape from Mars base!

Level 4 - Game 1 - Session 12

The marines began the round recalibrating their weapons load-outs, checking their ammo and quickly acquainting themselves with their new surroundings,

This sector, apparently of some importance judging by the size of the lobby they now find themselves in, is already crawling with Imps and Zombies... each corner of the entryway something moves to intercept them... their quick reactions and ever growing prowess deftly dispatches the demonic beings, leaving the marines alone in the lobby, the beeping of Mars base intercoms and the buzz of static and emergency lighting their only companions.

With some gusto the Marines quickly form up ready to breach the only door exiting from the lobby, as the doors slide apart the screams of the dying and tortured flush past them along with the sickly sweet smells of wet mud and fresh blood.

Noises not of this world sound in the dimly lit recesses of the large open hydroponics lab, several Mancubi shuffle dazedly on the far side of the room, Imps dash forward to claw at the marines, but a flick of the wrists a few dice rolls later, Marty has everything under control his 'killer instinct' showing just why he's Marine of the UAC. Denz and Ace veer off to check a dying scientists...

Denz, realising his lack of foresight was left to fight the demonic hoards with nothing more than his trusty side-arm pistol, but lack of fire-power was not enough to stop the fearless commander of this marine force as he drops even a mighty cacodemon with two well placed shots. For their efforts in fighting their way to the scientists they are  rewarded as with her last breath the lab technician gives them the phrase "PLUGH" .... [seriously .. that's in the game...] Marty on the other side of the room while wrestling an Archvile to the floor via means of a shotgun to the face, also finds a more than talkative science chappy, after much predictable "i'm dying" rhetoric, he too comes forth with what he claims is part of a pass-code.

Onward they plough monsters falling around them like so much torn confetti into the next section awarded by the challenge of a Hellknight and the rigmarole of having to clear away the lesser daemons like flotsam is wiped off a stagnant pond.

The team made it as far as 'Section 3' which seems more like a rush to grab XP than a fearful exploration of unknown territory, the long corridor filled with weak and easily slain smaller daemons was very quickly made clear by use of grenades and hails of bullets.

As Marty ran for the teleporters at the end, Ace and Denz put the final few (very necessary) holes into a spawned Hellknight, at which point, our attention turned to more important matters...

The massive fry up we were having!

The game was 'paused' and we ended our evening enjoying Bacon, beans, sausage.. heck.. the works!

Until next time ...

It's been a while...

A slight apology for the extended absence, we recently had an extra member join our little gaming circle, and we're more inclined to play games which can meet the requirements of 5 or 6 players... as such Doom The Board Game has been sat on my shelf quietly seething with demonic power.

To that end I will give a quick shout out to Ben... and a hearty welcome to the madhouse.

For those that might be interested, we've been playing Risk and also D&D - The Fantasy Adventure Board Game. I must say, compared to the mathematical-excursion that is 'real Dungeons & Dragons' this version plays quickly and is great as a pick up game with little or no knowledge required! so, kudos to the games designers for that.

Below are a few snapshots of that game..

Some Intense purple action!	Drink, dice & dungeons.
The single worst roll of the night (this roll has zero effect)	The action in this shot is almost too much to handle.
Stunning stuff!!! whatever it is that's happening?

You can find out more about D&D - T.F.A.B.G at Board Game Geeks!

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6366/dungeons-dragons-the-fantasy-adventure-board-game

Now.. lets move past the amuse bouche and onto the main course ...

More Doom!

Level 3 - Game 3 - Session 11

Rather than pick up from the previous 'Paused' game... mostly due to the huge amount of time it has been from our last session, we decided just to abandon that game (Session 10, RIP) and start over.

Beer's were shared around and we got down to business. In no time at all and due to the ever increasing abilities of the marine players they stomped through the first few corridors, imps and zombies posing no threat. Having reached the first main room (Area 2) of the level, I, as the invader player, managed to get some frags against the weaker green marine, and the red marine. Blue marine now sporting 4 points of body armour is becoming a thorn in my side as even the heaviest hitters such as Demons or Hell Knights have trouble denting his health.

At this stage I realised that I'd forgotten to add the 'timer' stacks which count down the number of turns the marines have to achieve each objective stage in this level and announced that "in the next turn you have to reach the first scientist" perhaps a little unfair, but I had at least a good indication of how many turns had passed due to the number of invader cards I had in hand / had drawn.

It's worth pointing out that use of 'Earthquake' when combined with the 'Watchful' ability of Demons causes much annoyance to marine players, but all said and done the marines were still having a very good run at this stage.

Blue Marine (left) and Red Marine (right) enjoying the beer and chocolate on offer.

The slaughter of evil things continued as the marines seemingly without effort dispatched 2 Hell Knights as they went through area 4, and the spawning invaders and invader cards proving to be entirely ineffectual, the marine players went on almost unhindered.

Upon reaching the final room, the Cyberdemon looming over the wounded marines I had a gut feeling that this might be the time that the marines make it through, Red marine spawn-jumped to the back of the room by 'forcing' a death upon himself, the other two marines tied up the front half of the room and impressively managed not to die straight away to the Cyberdemon Green took the brunt of the damage and caused the marines last loss of this game but only their 4th frag...

With one of the marines now re-spawned and with full health, Green takes great pride in causing pain and death to the invaders while Red, hovering around the final trigger square tangles with 2 Mancubus and defeats both.

(Click to expand)

It was an almighty blaze of destruction in the final room, I genuinely believed that the invaders could win, but sadly due to a rather pathetic show by the Cyberdemon the marines had an easy run of it.

And so, we ended the session and tallied up the experience so that the marines could move on to Level 4.
What horror awaits them there?...

Beer!

Sadly due to a beer festival ... it appears there's no game!

Have a beer to enjoy... looking at while we've enjoyed ours real ones!

Level 3 - Game 2 - Session 8

So, here's the missing data-stream report from marsbase that you've all been waiting for..

Level 3 or "Inferno" as it is known is essentially a time trial level (I explained in my previous session write up about the timers involved) and this means that mostly the marine players are entirely concentrated on covering as much ground as possible...

The invader player (myself) is tasked with simply halting the progress, I thought I was doing well to do so on this play-through, using 2 earthquake cards and also making best use of the 'insanity' card to cause the chosen marine player to halt for a turn.

Sadly because of the fact that in most turns the marines were opting to run (except for the now far overpowered Marty... who can opt to make an attack and move which he can then follow with another attack and move, giving him running speed and twice the killing power)

The invaders were entirely unable to cause any slowing of the marines progress in this round and other than whittling away at the marines health which caused a few frags by the time the marines had found the 1st scientist (in the 3rd room) the marines chewed their way happily through even the largest targets that came their way, Hellknights, Cacodemon, Mancubus... each as ineffective as the last.

Due to the time we decided to put the game on pause until our next session, the marines had made their way into the 5th room and claimed their 2nd scientist. Unless the invaders can have a better 2nd half this level may be beaten sooner rather than later...

Wait... what?

It occurred to me I'm a little behind, I've been busy helping move in to my new house as well as tidying my current abode (rental) so I'll be updating last weeks game sometime soon (about to go round for the off-week shenanigans so I cant do it right now)

To those that visit expecting updates... sorry!

Good (or average...) things come to those that wait.