Operation Last Train: Drop 2

The response to my post about Operation: Last Train has been completely overwhelming. In the three days since it went up, we've already raised over £400 for Save the Children! My heart-felt thanks to everyone who donated, plans to, or shared the news. 

I'm still getting my volunteers assembled, but I did have a chance to write and test the second scenario. So, presented below is Drop 2! Once I have a few more written, I will add them all to the rules and post an updated rulebook.

Drop 2: The Canal

‘At 2300 hours the ship got eyes on a pair of survivors moving down an inset roadway. It’s basically a concrete canal. Although they attracted some bug-eyed attention, they managed to make it to an access hatch, here, and seal it behind them. We don’t know if it is just the two of them in there or if there are more.

            Now the bad news. Both the canal itself and the shoulder above it are too narrow to land one of our birds and even if we could get close enough to ‘chute, the bird would attract every bug for miles. So, instead, we are going to put down here. We will then make our way along the roadway to the hatch. I may station a couple of you up on the shoulder, but I’ll wait until our boots are down to make that call. There are several other open access ways leading off the canal, and we have to consider it likely that they are bug infested.

            Once we rendezvous with the survivors, we’ll escort them back down the canal to this stairway. The stairway leads to a flat area big enough to land the bird.

            Any questions? Alright, gear up. We drop in twenty minutes.’

Set-Up

This scenario is played on a 2’ x 3’ table. One short edge is designated the volunteer edge. The other is the bug edge. The entire table within 6” of the right-hand side of the table is considered one shoulder of the canal and sits 6” above the rest of the table. (It is not necessary to model this, just put a piece of string or something similar down to mark the edge of the shoulder.)

            In the side of the shoulder 8” from the bug edge, mark the point of the access hatch. Place 6 numbered spawn points on the table. One should be in each corner of the table, including 2 on top of the shoulder. Place one additional marker in the centre of the shoulder (so 15” from either short end) and the final on the table edge directly across from it.

            Four cars should be placed haphazardly in the canal. Feel free to throw any other industrial rubbish in to make the table more visually appealing. Place an ammo token adjacent to two random cars.

            Place 2 bugs adjacent to each car. Place one additional bug in each corner of the bug edge of the table.

            Place 6 volunteers within 1” of the volunteer table edge, including on the shoulder, if desired.

Special Rules

No volunteer may climb up the side of the canal. They may slide down the side, but cannot take a shoot action on the turn they do so. Bugs can climb the canal side up or down without any penalties.

            If a volunteer is adjacent to the access hatch, they may use an action (either move or shoot) to try and alert the survivors. Roll a die. On a 7+ the survivors have been alerted. Immediately place 2d6+1 survivors as near as possible to the access hatch.          Once the survivors have been alerted any volunteer or survivor may exit off the table via the volunteer table edge (treat this table edge as the dropship for the purposes of survivor movement).

            At the end of each turn, roll 2 six-siders. Place a bug adjacent to each spawn point indicated by the dice. If your roll doubles, an unexpected event has occurred. Consult the chart below, checking the double-number rolled, to see what event has occurred. Each event can only occur once, if an identical doubles is rolled again, ignore it for the purposes of unexpected events.

Unexpected Event
Doubles Rolled	Event
1	Car Explodes. A stray round hit the fuel cells one of the cars and it explodes. Roll a die for every figure within 5” of the car. On a 1-4 nothing happens, on 5-8 they are knocked over, on a 9-10 they are killed. If a figure is already knocked over, and gets knocked over by the exploding car, they are not killed, but remain prone.
2	Survivor. Place one survivor in the centre of the bug edge.
3	Ambush. Place four bugs next to random spawn point.
4	Adrenaline. One random player may draw an extra Heroic Action card.
5	Bug Underneath. Place a bug adjacent to a random car.
6	Army Training. One of the survivors turns out to be an army veteran with a rifle. If there are survivors on the table, replace one with a volunteer rifleman. If there are no survivors on the table yet, save this result until there is one.