Retrieve the research items (Whiteout)

Probably the last of the summer holidays games, my kids and I played a game of Whiteout. In our previous game (report over here) we managed to rescue the scientists. During debriefing of the scientists it was discovered that a number of valuable research items were left behind. These were not to be allowed to fall into enemy hands so we had to return to the arctic base and search the surrounding area for the items.

Same as during the previous mission our team consisted of 1 explorer and 3 soldiers (my sons and me).

We moved across the ice but soon found our path blocked by a patch of thin ice.

To the North our path was blocked by a pressure ridge and a pack of giant wolves.

The wolves were chased away and we plodded on through the blizzard.

The explorer*

Son #2 *

A stroke of luck: we found one of the huts were the research items were stashed. 

The items were secured and we moved on to explore the surroundings: another pressure ridge and a vantage point.

On top of the vantage point our explorer stumbles into an enemy camp. We couldn't take all of them out before the end of the turn so they raised the alarm and an additional enemy group approaches.

After a shootout, running out of ammo and close combat, our explorer and son #1 are down and unconscious. We manage to kill all enemies but are severely weakend and decide to camp on top of the vantage point. Allthough we  manage to revive our explorer and son#1, we end up overall weaker than before due to unlucky dice rolling and negative sanity modifiers because we killed 8 people...

While our explorer and son#1 are recovering in the camp, son#2 and I decide to do some recon to avoid more negative sanity modifiers. We discover another hut, but decide to return to camp first and spend the night there.

Our endurance and sanity drop further (son#1 is unconscious again) and are barely hanging on when two scientists pass by who want to tell us stuff we already know (type of terrain surrounding us).

Then, after another overnight camp, distaster strikes when an enemy heavy patrol turns up.

And wipe us out! All is lost!

Perhaps the relative ease with which we completed our mission in the first game made us a bit overconfident. We should probably have brought extra men. The rulebook mentions this as a means to increase the likelihood of completing the mission. Although we didn't make it, it was a fun and exiting game.

Better luck next time 😃

*: snow effect