Monday 25 March 2019

Doctor Who: Exterminate! Report: The Daleks Verses Sea Devils - Part Two

A REINFORCED SEA DEVIL RAIDING PARTY ATTACKS A DALEK PATROL ON THE BEACH 
"The story so far… It is the year 2164 A.D. and the Daleks have conquered the Earth. However, their invasion has awoken a contingent of Sea Devils from their undersea sleeping chambers. Determined to rid their world of this latest threat to their global domination the Sea Devils launch a huge attack from the sea against the nearest Dalek Metropolis..."
THE ORIGINAL TABLETOP - A BEACH ON EARTH

The southernmost Dalek trundled past the Southern Outcrop towards Objective Six and its lucrative four Victory Points. The Dalek Leader headed south-east towards the location of the Sea Devil Overlord, and the lone drone by the North Outcrop moved east towards Objective Two. In response the Sea Devil Ancients hiding in the surf near Objective Six were joined by three Sea Devil reinforcements, whilst their Warlord ducked north behind the Central Outcrop. To the north two Sea Devils made their way towards the lone Dalek drone, readying their Hand Weapons for close combat.

With a harsh-sounding "Exterminate!" the Daleks opened fire upon the slow-approaching Sea Devils, with those drones who hadn't moved being able to utilise their disruptors at "Full Blast"; meaning they rolled eight unmodified dice to hit as opposed to the usual four. Resultantly, one of the Sea Devil Ancients and a member of the Sea Devil reinforcements both fell dead with a brief gurgle. The northernmost Dalek drone also managed to shock one of the Aquatic Silurians near him by Objective Two and then exterminated it courtesy of the Adventure Card "Upgrade: Maximum Extermination".
THE SEA DEVILS MOVE WESTWARDS FROM THE OCEAN TOWARDS THE DALEK FORCES
Suddenly faced with a surprising shift in fortune which had the Dalek faction leading 6-5 in Victory Points, the Sea Devils utilised the Adventure Card "Sonic Summoning" to "return up to three Exterminated Sea Devil Characters to the game." These emerged from the depths near the south-east corner of the ocean across from Objective Four. To the horror of the amphibious Earth reptiles' Overlord though, one of the few Daleks who hadn't yet fired made its way to Objective Three and revealed it to be worth 5 Victory Points. The Kaled Mutants now had a substantial lead on their prehistoric opponents.

Firing upon the Dalek approaching Objective Six, the Sea Devil Ancients would have felled their opponent if it hadn't played the Adventure Card "Escape Plan" in order "to ignore the Extermination result on one of your characters on a Damage roll." But that meant nothing could save the northernmost Dalek from being cut down by a "scientifically-advanced" Heat Ray, not even the expenditure of a Fate Token to force a re-roll on the damage table.
THE SEA DEVILS TRY TO ENGAGE THE DALEKS AS MORE REINFORCEMENTS ARRIVE
With so much slaughter taking place the Daleks seemed to have a commanding position on the battlefield, so remained stationary in order to maximise their firepower. As the (second) group of Sea Devil reinforcements swam towards the shore, the rest of the "humanoid turtles" bravely marched inland, seeking shelter where they could find it. Unfortunately, there was never going to be enough of it, and within moments the two remaining Sea Devils making up the faction's initial reinforcements were dead, as would have been the sole surviving Ancient if not for the cost of a Fate Token. A disruptor blast from a drone near Objective Three also successfully caught the Sea Devil Overlord, and momentarily shocked the Aquatic Silurians' leader to the ground.

Facing defeat the Sea Devils 'exhausted' the Adventure Card "Terror From The Deep" so as to allow their freshly arrived three sonically summoned warriors to disappear beneath the ocean's waves and re-emerge in the Large Pool directly behind the Dalek Leader's position. All three Sea Devils fired at the black Dalek, but despite a number of hits and use of Fate Tokens the best result the amphibious Earth reptiles could achieve was to shock the Kaled mutant onto its side.
THE SEA DEVILS TAKE THE DALEKS BY SURPRISE AND LAUNCH A MASSIVE COUNTER-ATTACK
Desperate to fell the deadly pepperpots, the Sea Devils discarded the Adventure Card "Now We Are The Hunters" allowing them to charge five inches into melee as opposed to their usual two inches. Even across the debilitating sand, this gave the three westernmost Sea Devils distance enough to close with the Dalek Leader and one of his minions, and a tense series of close combat engagements ensued. Incredibly however, despite being shocked the black Dalek still managed to fend off its attackers, whilst the plesiosaur-like warriors failed to damage the drone either.
THE SEA DEVILS RETREAT AS THE DALEKS GLOAT OVER A RESOUNDING VICTORY
Eager to escape the Dalek disruptors, the Sea Devil reinforcements retreated back into the gloomy waters of the Large Pool, and exhausted "Terror From The Deep" again in order to reappear further away in the Small Pool. Sadly, the move wasn't enough to save two of the Sea Devils, as the Daleks swung their weapons upon their position and fired. Whilst the sole surviving Ancient was also gunned down leaving Objective Six totally unprotected. Despite there still being time left for a final turn, the Sea Devil Overlord decided to live to fight another day, and signalled for his remaining people to retreat. The Daleks had won the day...

22 comments:

  1. Great conclusion Simon, disappointing result though with yet another Dalek win, I can't recall a BatRep you've shown where the Daleks lost, which suggests they are too overpowered to be balanced

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    1. Thanks very much Dave. The chap who has taken over the rules writing for "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" is aware the Daleks are a bit overpowered, so that may be addressed in the future. However, I think that can be easily off-set by their opponents having an additional Recruitment Card (or two) tbh.

      Having said that, if the Sea Devils surprise assault from the Large Pool had succeeded in disposing of the Dalek Drone and Dalek Leader, which ordinarily I think they would have, then things could have swung back in their favour. In the open though, the Dalek firepower is pretty formidable, especially when they don't move and roll eight dice. The only thing which will best that is UNIT's RPG/Bazooka when its released later this year, as that'll roll a whopping twelve dice!!

      Btw, I've sent you an email Ref a humble "Salute" order ;-)

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    2. Good to hear their addressing the issue, and reply sent mate

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    3. Cheers Dave. Reply read :-)

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  2. It has to be said...like shooting fish in a barrel...lol. An unsurprising result, as the Daleks do seem to be pretty much top dog in this game. I can't recall off the top of my head if you've run a Daleks vs the Doctor and companions game yet, as it would be interesting to see if the Doctor is similarly over-powered compared to some of the other factions and thus a match for the Daleks.

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    1. Thanks Jez. I haven't tried a Doctor and companions BatRep yet, but one is certainly on the cards.

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  3. Seeing the Daleks win always makes me happy. :-)
    Maximum extermination to their detractors!

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  4. The dalaks win?!? This would never happen on TV.......perhaps it should though?

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    1. Well the Daleks have succeeded in invading the Earth before, Ray, both on the TV and in the Cinema ;-)

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    2. It is surprising for the most deadly race in the galaxy that the Daleks don’t win more, Fran. I enjoyed some of the early stories where the Doctor was lucky to just escape wiv his life.

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  5. Just goes to prove that though "Sea Devils" are cool, "Daleks" are sooo much cooler!

    Nice report Simon.

    Cheers Roger.

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  6. Fab looking game there Simon 🙂

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  7. What a game, excellent report!

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    1. Cheers Wouter. It was a relief to get this second part posted tbh. As I have another “Doctor Who: Exterminate!” BatRep planned; albeit it using some homemade rules to cover a “Warhammer 40K” skirmish featuring Black Templars vs Bloodletters.

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  8. A fitting conclisopn to the game, but all the way throght I thought it could easily have gone wrong for the Daleks with the roll of better dice on the part of the fishmen.

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    1. Thanks Joe. I too think the Sea Devils could easily have caused quite a few problems for the Daleks if the dice gods had been a bit kinder to them; especially when they counter-attacked from the Dalek rear.

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