Short two regulars last night, we ran a quick ZONA ALFA test game with three crews vying to claim the data recorder from a downed surveillance drone. Each of the three Crew Bosses had nine K to spend when forming their squad and each intentionally selected different quality troops. In ZA, there are Green, Hardened, and Veteran levels, with 1, 2, and 3 actions per activation respectively. So Matt went with the Zergling Rush strategy of nine Greens, Derek chose the middle of the road with four Hardened troops and a Green tag-along, and Max tried out an all elite force of three Veterans. We set aside any additional Hot Spots and Zone Hostiles in order to concentrate on squad composition.
It was a straightforward battle with Max and Derek more concerned about Matt’s superior numbers than each other. Multiple firefights broke out across the base. Initially, Matt’s numbers were telling, but once he’d taken a few casualties, the limitation of one action/turn began to show.
On the other hand, Max used his multiple action troops to advance and retrieve the objective quickly, but once the shooting started, he lacked the numbers to follow through. His squad was wiped out before he could get the black box all the way back to his deployment zone.
Derek played the long game, leapfrogging forward cover to cover, trading shots with Matt (mostly) and picking off or pinning enemies when he could. His five-man crew ended up being a good balance between quantity and quality; his men could accomplish things when activated and he could afford to take hits as he advanced and engaged Matt’s swarm o’ Greenies. It was a close contest but Derek won in the end.
Now it was only one game and we intentionally focused on the squad composition extremes to see if a Swarm or Spec-Ops type force would have inherent advantages. They didn’t seem too. The weaknesses were apparent right away: Max’s three elites were first to the objective but first to die. Matt’s guys, although there were a lot of them and out-activated the other two forces each turn, were extremely limited. Even allowing for fickle dice, the game confirmed my suspicion that the best strategy is to mix and match different quality troops. Your Zone Crew needs bodies to soak damage AND you have to have at least a couple troopers who can get stuff done when it’s their turn. Introduce Turn Limits and that need becomes even more apparent.
That’s it for this Zone Report. More soon. Have an excellent day.
STALKER7 
Hi,
that was a very interesting game. The squad composition, is cool, makes sense and looks quite realistic to me. Can’t wait for more.
Thanks. Glad you like it.
Like I said, it was stripped down of Hot Spots/Hostiles, Skills and Abilities, even weapon variety that would otherwise add flavor and nuance, so we could concentrate on obvious extremes in composition spectrum. Things get much more interesting with those layers/details.
Great game report- really like your set up.
Cheers,
Pete.
Thanks Pete. I’ve pitched my tents toward the ‘moving diorama’ school of wargaming. The cooler-looking, the better.
We had floor tile that looked like your game board when I was a kid! 😀😀😀