Second Chainsaw Warrior playtest

We’ve just had our second playtest of Chainsaw Warrior using Space Hulk rules. A lot more of the proper models were available, some new and improved board sections and some important rules tweaks. Playing against the clock I had 60 minutes to save New York and… I won’t give the ending away but let’s just say it was a typical result for the original board game.

This time round the map consisted of three pairs of 1′ x 1′ boards (each 10 x 10 squares). These represented the First, Second and Third floors (yes, I know that the “First floor” should actually be the Ground floor, but this is the USA, and they don’t call it that). Each board had one stairwell which they could use to gain access to the next level. Assaulting the lair of Darkness were two squads of troopers with Automatic Rifles, each led by a Chainsaw Warrior. Squad Reaper was led by the Chainsaw Warrior with a Reaper, the other by a close combat specialist with the Chainsaw. Both had a laser lance, and each squad had a medic.

The forces of Darkness were bringing on two blips a turn from either one of the doorways round the edge or a stairwell. Normal Space Hulk lurking rules applied – if a soldier was within 4 squares of an entry point, it had to lurk for a turn. It was easy enough at first, but then the nasties started closing in.

Squad Reaper soon fought its way through to the first stairwell but found it blocked, Squad Chainsaw was making slower progress, gunning some down at point blank range.

With no casualties it was all good so far. The Chainsaw Warrior turns were cumulatively timed with about 15 minutes on the clock so far, and 45 minutes left. It was taking about 2 minutes per turn to move both squads.

Here a couple of zombies try to stop Squad Chainsaw reaching the second stairwell, but are soon blown to bits.

They had encountered relatively little opposition so far, with the only significant mishap occurring when a lunatic stole one of the soldier’s rifles, but blips were already massing on the floor above. This was where I made my first significant tactical mistake. There were blips all around on the second floor and some close quarter fighting ahead as they came up the stairs. Four troops took the lead, and it should have been one of the Chainsaw Warriors.

 

 

The two squads grouped together before pressing forward, with the riflemen charging up and into the lurking nasties.

 

 

Each time a new room was entered, we turned over a card. These were mostly empty, traps or a supply dump. This trooper was immobilised by a net trap. The net trap immediately ended his turn and this zombie swiftly polished him off, in spite of having half its guts hanging out.

In spite of this unpleasant mishap, the troopers blasted their way through the zombies and agents and began to work their way across to the other stairwell so they could get up to the top floor where darkness was waiting. The layout forced them to take a particularly long route. 37 minutes on the clock, and it was starting to get dark…

After this there was a fair sized ambush which yet again was blasted to pieces. It was all going very well for the warriors until we noticed how much ammo they were burning through.  They were approaching the stairs to the Third Floor without further casualties. Here the Chainsaw Warrior takes the lead to remove a particularly unpleasant collection of creatures: zombies, mutants, Chaos agents and a giant rat.

One of the troops had run out completely out of rifle ammunition, and the squad had no spare clips. Focused on the path ahead, they failed to guard against a zombie and a Chaos agent approaching from behind. The luckless soldier knocked down the zombie but was no match in close combat for the Chaos agent, especially as it had now got dark and their hand-to-hand rolls had a -1 modifier.

At the front of the squad, they had found a convenient secret passage and another zombie met his death (again) with a point blank blast from a rifle.While all this was happening darkness was gathering a HUGE force around the stairs on the Third Floor and a big fight was about to commence.

The first soldier through the secret passage became entangled in wire, and met his death in a re-run of the net incident. His comrade gunned down the zombie and they pressed on, reaching the stairwell,  hampered only by the sudden appearance of a Chaos agent accompanied by yet more zombies.

With Darkness massing its forces on the Third Floor, the two embattled squad re-grouped at the stairs. This time the two Chainsaw warriors took the lead. Although four soldiers had been killed and another was down to his sidearm, they still had a third of the time left, so it was looking hopeful.

The two squads had to pass through a room full of blips – the “Reaper man” took the lead and his fellow Warrior threw open the door to reveal the Meat Machine (being represented by an imposing, but completely inappropriate minotaur), who was immediately cut down with a hail of fire.

With only an entire room full of evil critters standing between them and Darkness, they pressed on. Taking the lead, the Chainsaw Warrior charged in and killed a “mutant” (Plaguebearer), but a humble “strength 6” zombie killed him when he rolled a double one.

Things were now worsening rapidly. The Chainsaw Warrior was down, two of the soldiers were “low ammo” – one double roll away from running out completely and the “Reaper man” was rapidly using up his precious ammunition. There was only 9 minutes left on the clock.

The squad killed all their attackers, but at the cost of almost all their remaining ammunition. The soldiers were all down to their sidearms, and the reaper had only 2 bursts left. Worse still, there was only enough time for a few more turns. Reduced numbers had brought the turn time down to about a minute, but they had barely started to search the Third Floor.

Recklessly rushing into the last room on that edge of the map, a soldier found a zombie instead of the Darkness he was hoping for. In a hairy few moments he gunned it down with his pistol and raced after the others.

While the rest of the squad push on against agents and zombies, armed only with their pistols, the Reaper turns back to deal with a mutant that is coming up behind. It’s the last couple of minutes before Darkness wins.

A couple of agents are killed, but two more soldiers go down. The Reaper turns back and shoots his way through the zombies, using up a couple of the precious laser lance rounds. The surviving soldier fought his way through one zombie and into another room – no Darkness, just another three zombies. He went down and it was just the Reaper left, with 12 seconds on the clock.

 

 

In a final heroic effort, the Reaper shot his way through the zombies and into one more room, but the turn of the card revealed no Darkness. It was zero hour and he had failed. Looking at the remaining cards, we discovered that Darkness was the very next card. They had come so close, but the relentless attacks and desperate shortage of ammo had secured their fate.