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ZONE ~ Near Future Skirmish Gaming~ |
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The Story 13:46 GMT : Gatekeeper Corporate News Service Early this morning our corporate microwave station situated on top of Twin Peaks Mountain was taken over by an Eco-terrorist group calling themselves "Green Earth". The terrorists are threatening to blow up the station unless the Gatekeeper Corporation guarantees the Twin Peaks station and all of our other microwave stations are turned into what they call "environmentally friendly". Gatekeeper president Glenn Clark stated in a news conference today, " the Twin Peaks microwave station is operating well within international standards. The 5km contaminated area around the base of Twin Peaks Mountain is the result of continued ozone depletion, not our station!" The Gatekeeper Corporation is internationally known for it’s zero tolerance policy on terrorism. Corporate rumors persist that the company will negotiate for a short period of time and when it fails they will send in the elite C.E.S.T. (Corporate Emergency Strike team) known as the "Black Daggers". | ||||||
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The real Story The Gatekeeper Corporation has already unleashed their C.E.S.T. Black Daggers. They received a report from one of their operatives in the E.C. that the station was actually taken over by troopers of their major competitor the Iridium Corporation of Berlin. The Eco-terrorist cover story is being used to try and stall for time so the Iridium force can download the technology that they are there to steal and be extracted before the negotiations fail. The Table Top The gaming table consists of 2 mountain peaks that are flat on top. The lower peak contains a landing-pad and the higher peak contains the microwave tower and a small blockhouse. The two peaks are joined by a suspension bridge over a deep chasm. The Iridium forces are setup inside the blockhouse and the surrounding area. The Gatekeeper force starts off located on the lower peak on the landing-pad. Terrain Terrain for this scenario is quite simple to make. Start with piling boxes or books into the 2 peaks on your gaming table and cover them with a white bed sheet. It is tempting to make the mountains very tall which looks very dramatic, but becomes quite difficult to play on. If you just have to have very high dramatic mountains, forget the table and start your mountains with large boxes on the floor and build up from there. The lower peak contains the landing-pad. I made mine from a piece of black neoprene from the craft store and decorated it with a painted yellow border and a large letter H in the middle. I also carved stone crags from styrofoam to decorate the area around the landing-pad and provide cover. My suspension bridge is very rickety and dangerous looking. Constructed of four pieces of wooden dowel for corner posts with brass wire strung in between and decked with wooden coffee stir sticks. It has the dramatic effect I was going for but you can make one much easier and more modern looking by using a piece of foamcore with a simple railing made from wire and straight pins. The second peak should be 6 to 12 inches higher than the lower peak. Make a small ledge to support the end of the suspension bridge and a winding path up the side of the mountain. The top of this peak contains the microwave tower made from a kid’s construction crane toy (my sons) and a free CD-ROM that conveniently arrived in the mail. The blockhouse is a very simple box made of foamcore. More stryofoam crags are placed randomly around the summit to provide cover.
Game notes This scenario plays best with a maximum of 10 figures per side. More can be used of course but the limited space of these two peaks makes it look very over crowded and unrealistic unless you’re planning on having a fleet of transports! The key battle in this scenario always comes down to who controls the bridge. It's length and width (how many moves does it take to cross and how many at one time can cross) has a major effect on the game. The bridge should not be allowed to be destroyed. It is advantageous to both sides to keep it intact. After all if the attackers destroy it they can not accomplish there objective. If the defenders destroy it there is no way off the mountain! The height of the second peak can also lengthen the game. The higher the peak the longer it will take troops to move up and down the path. One modification that can add a nice twist is to have the transport stay on the landing-pad and arm it with a turret mounted weapon to provide fire support for the attackers. Other possible options are to add weather effects or to allow figures to climb cliffs as opposed to using the path. |
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