The Young Ones on Vacation - a scenario for HeroQuest Skirmish

 A HeroQuest Skirmish Scenario

In my last post (see here) I mentioned that I was playing around with the idea of using the HeroQuest game system for playing quick and dirty skirmish games. I called this mad idea HeroQuest Skirmish (that's trademarked by the way. Ok. Maybe it isn't. But I'm claiming it even though its completely indefensible in court!).

So dear reader. Here I post about the scenario I will be using to try this idea out. This scenario comes from the most excellent Population Z skirmish game from Tabletop Skirmish Games. Do check them out.

And for reference, the HeroQuest cards are made using the fantastic HeroQuest Card Creator website. I forgot the mention this in the previous post.

The Young Ones on Vacation - a scenario for HeroQuest Skirmish.

Background

Vyv has found himself the lucky recipient of a summer internship at the Pitzer Medical Research Labs located out in the rural countryside of England. Mike, Rick and Neil have joined him at the little British village of Dinglesberry where many of the Pitzer facilities employees reside. The Pitzer Labs are high security and no questions asked. The facility even has its own security personnel armed to the teeth. None of this gives pause to the lads as it's a chance for Vyv to dissect stuff and for the rest of them to bludge off the internship grant. Vyv's faithful pet, the hamster SPG, is with the Young Ones as well. 

Shortly after settling in something goes array at the facility. Some staff, working in the maximum quarantine block, have a workplace accident. They are rushed to St Catherines in the Field a hospital operated by the local nunnery of St Catherine of Complete Mercy. Soon however, other patients start to show symptoms being experienced by the Pitzer workers and some of the nuns who operate the hospital also come down with the strange ailment. The Mother Superior quickly shuts down the hospital and enacts quarantine protocols but shortly thereafter Pitzer private security personnel turn up and take over the lockdown. Not surprisingly Mother Superior Mary Immacolata is not impressed. A former mud wrestler in her wilder days she won't be taking this situation "laying down", so to speak. She quickly rallies the rest of the nuns and begins plans to find out what's really going on.

Meanwhile the rest of the Pitzer facility staff are ordered to leave work immediately and await further instructions from management. Noone knows what's going on but the place goes into lockdown. Vyv, who was on a lunch break at the time, realises that SPG has gone missing. Those bloody infectious diseases virologists were eyeing off SPG whilst he was working, and he bets that they nicked SPG when Vyv was distracted so that they could experiment on the hamster. Unperturbed, Vyv leaves his lunch at the Pitzer parklands and sneaks back to the lab facility to find SPG. Liberating the hamster (and a bunch of other hamsters), Vyv and SPG now attempt to make good their escape back to the carpark and make a getaway from the lockdown in Vyv's Ford Anglia.

But there are some strange people now wondering the parkland. And they don't look very healthy.

Setup

The scenario set up is identical to one of the early Population Z Huntsville scenarios. But modified for my own fun and stupidity.

The Zombie Runner gets two red dice movement each turn. Movement is in any direction desired. There is always one Runner on the table. If it is killed. Another Runner will come onto the board at the start of the next turn.

There is one Security Sergent who arrives on turn one in a Humvee. He is accompanied by his Security Team and they arrive at the car park. They are armed with ranged weapons.

The Security Team consists of three personnel, all armed with ranged weapons and they arrive in the Humvee with their Sergent. They have orders to shoot anything that resembles a human and that is moving. That's not good news for Vyv.

Zombie Shufflers will always move towards the nearest non-Zombie they have Line-of-Sight (LOS) to. Failing that, they will move towards the nearest loud noise. Failing that, they will move towards the biggest group of Zombies in LOS, forming a horde. Shufflers have a move of 5" and can move in any direction.

The game table is set out as below. This is a 3x3 foot area with terrain to suit. There is a carpark, park grounds keeper cottage, a pond, a fenced off carpark and vegetation/rocks to taste suitable for a parkland. The cottage isn't accessible without the keys to open it. Those keys are on what's left of the Groundskeeper.

Vyvyan and SPG start in the opposite corner to the carpark as they head across the park from the labs. There are several plot points that Vyv and SPG can collect to gain victory points and benefits. But at least one of them needs to survive in order to win the scenario. Vyv starts without his Cricket Bat. A decidedly disadvantageous position to be in.

The Zombie Runner starts near the remains of the Grounds Keeper. Munch, munch, munch...

SPG was napped by the virologists whilst he was taking a swim in the pond with his favourite toy. SPG will do whatever he can to retrieve it.

The Grounds Keeper... what's left of him

The Grounds Keeper has his keys still left in his remains. If Vyv can get the keys, he can enter the Cottage and use it to evade the Zombies. But the keys to his Ford Anglia are there as well. All carpark users are required to surrender their keys to the Grounds Keeper before entering the facility. So Vyv needs to get his keys back. To get his keys he needs to get into the cottage. The get into the cottage, he needs the keys off the Grounds Keeper's remains.

Vyv's keys are on the table. And yes, Vyv has a girly keychain. Rick teases him about it all the time until Vyv punches him!

Vyvyan's lunch is liquid in nature. From the local brewery. If he can collect his lunch (and not lose it), he can use it as a Healing Potion as per the HeroQuest rules.

Finally, when Vyv noticed that SPG was missing, he put down his favourite Cricket Bat and set off to the Labs. Now if he can just get to his bat, he can arm himself with it and gain 3 Attack Dice to his normal unarmed attack of 3 Attack Dice. That will be a major advantage to Vyv and SPG. So, this is a priority for Vyv. Fortunately, he dropped the bat not far from where he left his lunch.

Last but not least. There is a Zombie Brute that will appear after the first turn of the game, if there is more than one Zombie attracted onto the table.

Zombies are attracted to the table as per the Population Z rules. It's a very nifty system and so I won't steal its lunch here. It's also got some great AI charts for how Zombies behave and react. ITS A GREAT GAME. So go check out the game and buy it for yourself.

One final thing is that Zombies can't climb anything higher than their chest height. So, they could climb a vehicle or flop over a fence, but not a dumpster and then the house, for example. They also like the smell of rotting flesh and therefore won't enter water. This means that the pond is off limits to the Zombies as impassable terrain.

Stay tuned for the Battle Report.