Hold the Line ~Single Player Mission

[ZombieDad]

That's great news Jason, look forward to the new supplement...maybe add the single player variation

I had also considered adding that if a Hero wins a fight without doubles, a zombie gets pushed back one space. I was going to add that if it was too challenging, but my first test game proved tense and close. Perhaps I should try it again without the super market.

I'd be interested in seeing if others felt the need to be able to push the zombies back. As of right now it appears to be Heroes 2 Zombies 0. (Both with super market)

[spiritusXmachina]

You're right. Testplaying is the answer and so I did another one yesterday (the scenario is easy and fast to play so one can do it in-between)!
By the way if jchill already uses the title "Hold the Line" for one of his scenarios why not change the title? "The Horde" or "The Stampede" comes to my mind.

Now about my test-game:
I drew Stacy, Father Joseph, Jenny and Becky. My first thought: What a lame party! I was totally wrong - the following game felt like a piece of cake. I had the Gun Shop and the Junkyard on the hero's side of the board. The Church and the Antique Shop was on the other (the Zombie side is not too important in this scenario so it seems to me).

To make it short: In turn 9 all Zombies were eliminated! But on the way I drew and used 1 Fire Extinguisher, 2 Signal Flares, 3 Revolvers (1 from gunshop), 1 Shotgun, 3 Dynamite (had a Torch and Welding Torch early in the game to light them) and 1 Gasoline!

Here a little longer: Stacy is some kind of an Ueber-Hero in this one as I put her on the Spawning Pit in the Plant early on (without the usual risk she faces). By searching and her Reckless ability she got 2 Hero Cards every turn! She made a team with Becky on the left flank and was responsible for two dynamite and nearly all revolver attacks.
Father Joseph was the backup mate for Jenny on the right flank.
Jenny was MVP with 7 kills. Her best move was using the Extinguisher to gather three Zs on one tile and then blowing them up with dynamite. At the same time Father Joseph prepared a Gas Marker tile on a good place which a turn later Jenny blew up with her Signal Flare to ashen 3 Zs. She took out another one with the shotgun Father Joseph gave her.

Analysis: If used wisely Stacy is very powerful and maybe she is responsible by all the the cards she got but I think I had a lot of luck drawing anyway. And the dice were on my side too. I think only two revolver shots missed and the one revolver that was out of ammo was easily "recycled" at the Gunshop.
Other testruns will follow.

[ZombieDad]

I just did another Test Play. And, the heroes won. Making the score (Heroes 4 Zombies 0) It was very close though!

Highlights:
My heroes were Sally, Jenny, Billy, and Father Joseph. I thought this would be a lot harder since FJ can't use a gun and no starting weapons.
Some of the highlights were two epic fails by Father Joseph after lining up two zombies on one space and having the opportunity to blow both to smithereens with a toss of dynamite and a roll of 2+, well Joseph tossed a pair of snake eyes!

I was also able to take kill quite a few zombies quickly by drawing two signal flares. Billy hung out by the airplane hanger and was able to take the signal flare a couple times, too. Two fire extinguishers and a Block The Windows card slowed down the zombies. But, it still came down to the last two.

They were both two spaces away when Jenny drew a I've found the...and took the chainsaw from the discard pile. Next turn, one zombie on one side was gone! This left one more...Billy also drew a I've found the... and took a signal flare from the discard pile. With the Zombie on the last space...ready, aim, fire! Miss! A roll of one...gulp. Was this the end for the heroes?

Well, Sally finally became useful and ran across the board with a good dice roll and used her fire extinguisher. This delayed the zombie just enough for Jenny to get over there and finish the game with the chainsaw. The dismemberment stopped the Z from crossing off the board and finishing the Zombie Victory.

I've got a couple ideas to make it harder that I'm going to try. Once I give them a test I'll give a post to see if anyone else wants to try it.

[samuraitrev]

How about when the Zombies get to the 'endzone' they have to roll a 4+ to get into the camp (off the board). Thematically they are breaking through the camp Barricade. This also suits the, already in place, Barricade rules. This would add even more dramatic tension to the final nail biting Turn(s).

Just a thought
Happy gaming

[spiritusXmachina]

(06-28-2013 07:41 PM)samuraitrev Wrote:  How about when the Zombies get to the 'endzone' they have to roll a 4+ to get into the camp (off the board). Thematically they are breaking through the camp Barricade. This also suits the, already in place, Barricade rules. This would add even more dramatic tension to the final nail biting Turn(s).

Well, it seems that taking the overall game results until now the game should be made harder for the heroes, not the zombies.

[aldrichgreg]

alright so finally I did my first test play of this scenario, and I think I am agreed that ramping up the difficulty might be a worthwhile consideration, though there is a serious outstanding discrepancy in my play-through.

I only have TP, HP1, and Survival of the Fittest (I play in a group that has the original LNOE, so I haven't needed to shell out and buy it yet). I played with TP and HP1.

my heroes selected (randomly) were: Nikki, Alice, Ed, and Jade. at first I was apprehensive since Nikki's Rescue Gear wasn't as powerful as it typically is and Jade's Rebellious wasn't as powerful either. I actually forgot to draw an upgrade for Ed (I realize as I write this...)

the horde advanced and the heroes searched for a couple turns. we found both hopeful discoveries and put them to good use so that all the heroes had a pretty even distribution of weapons. in addition I found both restocks (never played), both Lucky Breaks (one used), a Get Back you Devils (never used), and Samantha Radio DJ (never used). the weapon distribution was as follows:

Alice: Hunting Rifle, Chainsaw.
Nikki: Signal Flare (used), Pump Shotgun (ran out of Ammo).
Ed: Survival Torch, Pick Axe.
Jade: Police Shotgun. (she was also two turns away from getting her hands on the Logging Axe from the second Hopeful Discovery.)

Ed made it to the radio tower first but got low rolls and didn't get to fight till turn 7, but managed some brawling that killed the last zombie standing.

Alice got the hunting rifle, found a good position, and sniped the entire left half of the board, minus one zombie whom she chainsawed (she got the Sharp Shooter upgrade, though I never had need of this ability.)

Nikki, venture out onto the right half of the board and signal flare and then promptly ran out of ammo with the pump shotgun.

Jade backed up Nikki and Police Shotgunned the right half of the board (within two turns of firing.)

the whole showdown was over in 8 turns. overall we only took two wounds collectively (one for Alice and one for Ed--though he could've Survival Torched that sitch--man, I played that character poorly...)

anyway, it makes me wonder if the more brutal rules of TP aren't tipping the scale in the heroes' advantage for my play of this scenario. certainly when I run it again, and I will, this is an excellent one-player scenario, I will not have upgrades, and I will most likely consider pulling the police shotguns from the deck--it was just too powerful. I might pull the hunting rifles as they are a bit too much in this scenario, I imagine.

that being the case, I think TP might just be a little out of balance for this set-up. I am in support of developing some alternate conditions to up the difficulty, at least for TP. it might be fun to develop a sliding scale of difficulty (heroic, master, legendary, or some such title). I think I might consider adding grave weapons to the zombies, though that wouldn't have saved them this time around, but without 2 Hopeful Discoveries...

anyway, it is great scenario concept. I am now super curious about Jason's new development...

[Achtung Panzer]

One thing to ponder... I'm no scenario writer but I've read on other forums (C&C: Ancients and C&C: Napoleonic) that to really play-test a sceanrio you shouldn't play solo but must play with other opponents.

I guess, sub-conciously, we all play to a style and you won't fully test the possibilities and eventualities within a scenario without multiple perspectives.

[spiritusXmachina]

Had another test game today. The Heroes scored again in turn 9.

I just used the basic hero cards but added the GH tiles. The Hero-Team consisted of: Jade, Kenny, Billy, Jake Cartwright. On the Zombie side there was the High School and the Gun Shop - on the Hero side the Super-Market and the Farmhouse.
At the left flank Kenny and Billy formed a team to search the Super Market. At the right flank Jake and Jade teamed up.
To make it short here only some highlights:

Jake tried to get to the gun shop behind the Z-line but had a bit of a hip problem as he only moved 3 tiles in 3 turns. Jade helped him out with a revolver (which only had one bullet left) and he missed.
The event card Blocked Windows was of some help as it kept 4 Zs from moving.
The following items had been used: 3 revolvers, 2 shotguns, 2 dynamites, 1 gasoline, 1 fire extinguisher, 1 bat, 1 meat cleaver, 1 pitchfork.
The Hero card deck only had six more cards left as Kenny has quite looted the super market.
Zombies killed: Billy 4, Jade and Jake 3, Kenny 2
The scenario was easy to play but I still like it.

Some ideas for making the scenario harder for the heroes:
Starting tiles: All Heroes start at the opposite edge of the board on the same tile outside a building. (So they may not begin searching in the first turn).
Using the Zombie cards. Maybe: At the beginning of the Zombie turn flip over the first two cards. You have to use them at the first possible occasion. At the beginning of the next Zombie turn all cards not used are discarded and two new cards are drawn.
Of course there are some cards that should be taken out first like Shamble or Taken Over...

[ZombieDad]

(07-02-2013 08:40 AM)Achtung Panzer Wrote:  One thing to ponder... I'm no scenario writer but I've read on other forums (C&C: Ancients and C&C: Napoleonic) that to really play-test a sceanrio you shouldn't play solo but must play with other opponents.

The whole point of the scenario is to play solo. Did you mean get different people to play test it? If so, that's the purpose of the post. Try it out and let me know your thoughts!

---

(07-02-2013 03:17 PM)spiritusXmachina Wrote:  Some ideas for making the scenario harder for the heroes:
Starting tiles: All Heroes start at the opposite edge of the board on the same tile outside a building. (So they may not begin searching in the first turn).
Using the Zombie cards. Maybe: At the beginning of the Zombie turn flip over the first two cards. You have to use them at the first possible occasion. At the beginning of the next Zombie turn all cards not used are discarded and two new cards are drawn.
Of course there are some cards that should be taken out first like Shamble or Taken Over...

Spirit, Thanks so much for your continued support of the scenario.

I've also been thinking through the use of Zombie Cards. The idea I had was to put one card in front of each player at the beginning of the Zombie turn face up. If it is a fight card it is used in the first fight that Zombie has that turn or the following human's turn. If it is a movement card, enact the card right away. I think it is important to know what cards to take out. Any suggestions?

The second idea I had was to start initially with one Hero, and have 3 Heroes tied up in a separate random building on each map corner, that you need to "rescue" and build your party. In which case, you could choose to only rescue 3 and play the game with 3 heroes.

The third idea I had was to create a second victory condition besides killing all 12 zombies. It could be a simple, get the gas in the car. Haven't play tested any of these ideas yet. Just need to get some time.

[Achtung Panzer]

"The whole point of the scenario is to play solo. Did you mean get different people to play test it? If so, that's the purpose of the post. Try it out and let me know your thoughts!"

Fair point, well made.