Game #9 : Zone (1988)
Fair enough, I'm happy to rally around "send cannon fodder to the suburbs of our quaint town" plan.
Also, can we do long-distance psychin' or some such from the comfort of our base?
My brain for some reason processed the table as "day for a motorbike scout", not foot scouts. Hell, it's now a tad easier.
The true optimal way would be to scout the closest area timing the on-foot scouts and bikers to return at the same time (so to have the maximum numbers available for things happening) but I can't find a good way to cover the closest areas optimally without losing time.
Computer, show me a map of pre-Great Conflict France.
Now, locate the region that was known as "Brittany".
Zoom in on that region.
Rotate that 39.20° counterclockwise.
Give me a comparison with the map as we currently see it around us.
Computer, what can you tell me about the ancient computer software company known as "Ubisoft"?
The Guillemot brothers established Ubi Soft Entertainment S.A. in March 1986 in Brittany, France.
Very interesting...
Seeing how we have enough food to eat for now, I think our most valuable resources is information. We need to scout aound us as much as we can.
I volunteer to go on a scouting mission on my own. My only condition is that it be away from the nasty cloud.
LOL Argyraspide. The base camp is apparently in Quimper suburbs ^^. "Forget the Doctor-Priest, let's reclaim the Mont Saint Michel from the Normands while eating pancakes and putting our flags everywhere".
I will execute the actions tonight (French time) then I am on long week-end until Monday night. Hopefully the bikers will be back to tell what they do.
Quote from Argyraspide on 6 April 2023, 12h48Rotate that 39.20° counterclockwise.
You'd wonder why they even bothered to change the town names in this case. Douarnenez and Carhaix sound perfectly post-apocalytpic-videogame-y for an international audience.
"... and I hope my true nature as a Norman man may never be discovered by these filthy alcoholics. I shall try and bring them towards the radioactive cloud, hoping that it may bring them Oblivion. I leave towards Zoor on my faithful bécane, hoping for good news."
Satisfied, I then put both plume and diary back into their pouch and leave, alone if need be, to check the neighbouring province of Zoor.
Quote from Helly on 6 April 2023, 15h28"... and I hope my true nature as a Norman man may never be discovered by these filthy alcoholics. I shall try and bring them towards the radioactive cloud, hoping that it may bring them Oblivion. I leave towards Zoor on my faithful bécane, hoping for good news."
Satisfied, I then put both plume and diary back into their pouch and leave, alone if need be, to check the neighbouring province of Zoor.
That's like one day back-and-forth. If the other scout on foot, you ll have the time to go to other places. Should I send you there too ?
Quote from The Wargaming Scribe on 6 April 2023, 15h43Quote from Helly on 6 April 2023, 15h28"... and I hope my true nature as a Norman man may never be discovered by these filthy alcoholics. I shall try and bring them towards the radioactive cloud, hoping that it may bring them Oblivion. I leave towards Zoor on my faithful bécane, hoping for good news."
Satisfied, I then put both plume and diary back into their pouch and leave, alone if need be, to check the neighbouring province of Zoor.
That's like one day back-and-forth. If the other scout on foot, you ll have the time to go to other places. Should I send you there too ?
Oh yeah, as long as i keep scouting in the general SE sector!
Final strategy I will execute :
- Send canon fodder on foot in near location
- Send Helly to the S-East in progressively more distant location
- Send Strange under the cloud given he did not complain about it 😉
I will report shortly
II. First exploration
Well, I sent Helly toward Zoor, and then the canon fodder on the closest destinations around base camp : Moya, Hupas and Tartar . Doing this, I realized I could explore the remaining neighbouring areas with BG before the canon fodder would return, so I sent him to Cazan (only 1 day, so actually moto go 6 times faster). and then Verinan.
Sending the canon fodder
In Cazan, Strange reported he found some fuel. He immediately returned without even filing his fuel tank. He sent him to Verinan (2 days).
Brûle-Goudron returned a bit later from Zoor - nothing. I sent him to Altha (3 days). When Strange returned from Verinan reporting nothing, I sent him to Kintor.
Checking the map turn 3, considering whether I should send Strange to Nork or to Kintor. Red dots a group or a scout heading in that direction or already there.
Everyone returned days 4 and 5 :
- Tanith found food in Tartar
- Brûle-Goudron also found food on Altha. On the way back, he met a group of Killers moving toward Crom. Given Crom is North of the map, it may take them some time.
"The Killers are moving toward Crom. They are 9, 7 of which are agressive". I am not quite sure how BG determined that 2 of them were nice fellows.
- Rambo found nothing on Hupas
- Barbara found spare parts on Moya
- On Kintor, Strange found the friendly Blackrobe tribe !
The blackrobes are willing to take trainees in psychic things - training takes 15 days during which the weirdo is unavailable.. I have not been able to do anything else with friendly tribes in my very limited tests. They have nothing to tell you if you visit them at the beginning of the game, and they don't trade either - maybe later they have a more important role.
And no, I don't know what the psychic guys can do. The only thing I noticed is that they can medidate when in a dungeon and see the map around them (+the enemies). The manual states they can see "secret places" too, but that's all I know.
So here is our in-game notes (N = Food, C = Fuel, P = Spare parts).
We are the 10th of April. The cloud did not move. Strong wind blowing West to East
Not much change to the storage situation but I will post it every update :
54
54 days of food.
1386 liters of fuel (57 moto-days or 19 IFV-days). We lost 10% more fuel than we should have :).
- Barbara found spare parts on Moya
Brilliant! My IFV is itching to go there, pick up scrap metal, and prepare for its own obsolescence.
I'd also vote for sending someone on a Psychedelic training seminar asap. That's fewer mouths to feed for 15 days, at least!
I'll go along with the IFV group and help load scrap. Who shall we send to the Blackrobes vacation retreat? I vote Tanith.
I guess there's not all that much to do for the good ol' Karbon yet, is there? I can go escort/load the IFV, if that's going to be useful, and I guess we should keep looking through the nearby regions in search for more fuel - the food doesn't seem like it's going to be a problem any time soon, and we only have a single source of parts and fuel...
Being clearly the second in command (my name is second on the list, so I'm second in command) I volunteer to lead our Great Brotherhood to recover scrap on Moya. I do agree on sending Tanith to the Blackrobes, as a....test. Let's see what happens.
Regarding scouting, let's be methodical and send our scouts North-West, towards the Black Atlantic. I guess a mix of motorbikes and on-foot scouts can cover easily Ghor/Thera/Dragor, nay?
(Also, I'm kinda surprised there's so little around. We roughly covered what, a bit less than 30%? Brittany sure is desolate)
I am back home tonight. Here is what I will do :
- Dayyalu, Gubisson, Karbon and Porkbelly in the pick-up group first for the parts, then the fuel.
- Tanith on geek retreat
- The other NPCs and the two bikers exploring, either next to the cloud if it can be done safely, or West.
III. First combat
So, as per the plan, I start sending almost everyone in a mission :
- Dayyalu, Meat, Karbon all hop in Gubison's IFV and go fetch some spare material. Dayyalu said shotgun so he is the boss :
We learn two things here :
- I should have said "she is the boss" because Dayyalu is a lady
- Our IFV is a Hasbro Triple-T (released 1986)
As for the others :
- Tanith is sent to learn how to draw anime girls with the Blackrobes. He/she will be back in 24 days ! 15 days of training + 9 days of walking.
- I send Brûle-Goudron, Strange, Rambo and Barbara scouting. Well, Barbara not really because I do a mistake and send her somewhere we already scouted, but the other definitely go to new places.
It leaves only myself, Argyraspide and Rambo in the base. I sure hope we don't get attacked !
Uh Oh ! "Alert ! The camp is attacked by the skinheads. Energy rings ready to fire !"
Well, combat it is.
When outside and when I am personally present, combats are not stat-based but totally arcade (though possibly the result of the combat is stats x performance in the arcade phase). I control a turret that must shoot at targets coming 2 by 2. It is not really difficult : a radar tells you where the enemies are coming from and you can accelerate or slow down the turret rotation, something that years of manipulating DOSBOX cyclespeed and various emulator warpspeeds made me great at.
Out of 7 waves of 2, I only miss 2 targets : one at the beginning, and one at the end (above). That's enough to have very negative consequence for one of us :
Valero saw death from very close
Valero's health is two arrows down, and it will take absolute ages to go back to normal status. Actually, I assume that waiting heal, but I am not sure.
In any case, the IFV comes back with spare parts for another IFV. There are still spare parts to be collected, so I send the same group again. When it returns a bit later with more IFV parts, it has still not collected everything, but with enough parts to do 2 IFV (apparently nothing to make a new motorcycle), I send the group to collect fuel instead. They bring 712 liters of fuel
Meanwhile, the scouts are kept busy. BG reports there is nothing on Ghor. On the other hand, Strange has some big news : there is a Skinhead base on Tera.
There are 4 groups of skinhead, they are 62 and very agressive !
I have no idea what a "group" is. I suppose it means that's the maximum number of expedition to collect stuff or attack us they can send at the same time - though possible some groups are outside.
I resend the two motocycles more to the North, and receive more reports :
- Dragor has fuel AND food !
- Hirgael is home to the bulldozer clan. A friendly tribe which can train us in tank/IFV driving !
- Finally, Rambo comes back from Hawk, where he miraculously escaped detection : that's the Stinkers base (49, 3 groups, very agressive)
I guess if your first language is English you should call them "les puants" to keep the vibe.
We are the 18th, and I also receive this ominous message :
The strength of men... and women ... decline. Act quickly, Scribe
So, situation. This is he official notebook :
As I said, I sent Barbara by mistake to Verinan where we know there is nothing. She should be back tomorrow.
I did a handy map :
Red : Hostile tribe
Green : Friendly tribe
Blue : Some stuff
Grey : Empty
Dayyalu was right : the surrounding area was particularly empty.
Here is the general status :
Food : 46 days for 12 people
Fuel : 1258 (52 moto-days or 17 IFV days). A bit down despite finding 700+ liters
Enough spare parts for 2 IFV. It takes 17 days to build one
Note that when I sent the folks skilled in repair away, the time to build an armor went up dramatically (55 days IIRC).
So... what's next ?
We can attack enemy base, in which case there is two parts :
- The arcade part we know of. In my earlier tests, either there were only 10 or 12 guys, or I only had to fight one group before being able to get inside
- If I am in the group, the dungeon-crawling part, where people who can punch are necessary, but I can't exclude that the other skills are important, too. Again, I discover the game just as you do, so I don't even know if we can destroy bases to get rid of a threat or not. The manual mentions "special treasures" inside those bases, though. In buildings, bikers use their "bike" skill in combat, and are showed using ranged weapons in the animations, so maybe you need bikers too ?
I can only travel in a group using an IFV. I don't go on foot.
We can also wait to become more powerful, maybe find the "punch in the face" trainers ?
I'd happily take a field trip out to Dragor to pick up fuel and food. Alternatively, I'd probably enjoy a 15-day paid seminar in truckin' with the Bulldozers. I'm unclear if I can get EVEN BETTER at truckin' (or, even, what truckin' actually does), but sure.
I'd probably hold off on attacking the Skinheads group until we get better at punching people in the face.
Also, LOL the Hasbro Triple T !
Quote from Gubisson on 11 April 2023, 9h39I'd happily take a field trip out to Dragor to pick up fuel and food. Alternatively, I'd probably enjoy a 15-day paid seminar in truckin' with the Bulldozers. I'm unclear if I can get EVEN BETTER at truckin' (or, even, what truckin' actually does), but sure.
I'd probably hold off on attacking the Skinheads group until we get better at punching people in the face.
Also, LOL the Hasbro Triple T !
I know you can be trained until 5 stars, but I have no idea what being better at trucks/tanks does. I ASSUME it makes you move faster on the world map while consuming the same amount of fuel. Possibly, it makes you fight better too, at least when I am not here.
We cannot "detach" you from your IFV, so if we send you to train, the IFV is unavailable for 15+ days ^^. We would rather send Rambo to get his second star, so we have a backup driver (or a driver for the future second IFV, which can do the resource collection while you do the base attacks !). Or we train someone else so we have 3 potential drivers for our 3 future IFVs (though I am not 100% sure we need a third IFV, except as spare.
I find it hilarious you can just put together an IFV. Imagine the assembly instructions...
Other than that, I think we still have some scouting to do. I'm up for an IFV sortie somewhere North, North-West.