MIB vs the Fallers part 4: The Nest

After surviving an infiltration attempt by the Fallers (read all about it here) the MIB continue to investigate the Faller threat. They follow the trail to a small town called Tinville, believed to be the base from which the Fallers operate. Observations seem to indicate that most of the town has been taken over by Fallers. MIB has blocked all access to the town and has a small tactical nuke standing by to eradicate the Fallers. 

But first MIB will attempt a surgical strike to secure a laptop on which a Faller administrator has listed the locations of all Faller assets. Valuable information for the MIB to ascertain the spread and operations of the Fallers.

There are strong suspicions that Fallers have hidden Faller eggs in buildings to "eggsume" people that happen to wander into town. MIB scientists have discovered that the irresistable attraction of the Faller eggs is caused by airborne feromones and they built several feromone detectors that signal when a Faller egg is near.

The Plan:

MIB will enter Tinville with 4 teams:

Team A: Full hazmat suit with integrated detectors

Team B: Agents with resipirators blocking Faller feromones accompanied by a hazmat tech with detector

Team C: regular MIB agents accompanied by a hazmat tech with detector

Team D: SWAT team accompanied by a hazmat tech with detector.

Team C and D cannot enter buildings containing an egg because they will be unable to resist the attraction of the Faller egg and will be eggsumed. 

The laptop is located in the tower of the central building. MIB must appropriate it and leave the table with it to win.

The Fallers have 5 teams with mixed weaponry spread out through this part of the town. Their job is to stop the MIB.

Buildings may or may not contain an egg. Protected personnell with a detector can detect an egg when near an opening in the building (roll a d6: even means no egg, odd means an egg).

My first idea was to play this with the FfoL bigger battles rules, but since my opponent and I played a lot of Chain of Command lately I thought the game would go smoother when we used Chain of Command rules.

We considered Fallers to be green (so easy to hit) but extremely tough (always in light cover, so difficult to kill). MIB are all regulars.

We roll a d6 and: I get to play the Fallers.

Seemingly ordinary citizens are going about their business in Tinville

A scouting MIB vehicle stops to investigate.

The citizen outside the building runs inside and alerts the nearby Faller cells.

A bus full of Fallers try to park the bus across the street to block it. Unfortunately they trigger a special event and a blazing fire suddenly engulfs the building near the bus (must've hit something vital while manouvering).

The Fallers exit the bus quickly, unsure what to do.

Unpertubed by the blaze, MIB team A arrives and detects a Faller egg inside.

The team clears the building, destroys the egg and move up the road towards the tower building together with the other MIB teams.

Meanwhile a police car full of Fallers is speeding towards the intruders.

MIB establish a roadblock and send their hazmat tech guy to check out the adjoining building

The hazmat tech carefully creates a small hole in the window and inserts a probe: the building contains an egg.

It turns out the building also contains a Faller cell and they open fire on the MIB agents.

MIB team C position their vehicle just outside pistol range of the police-fallers but are in range of the Fallers inside the building.

Concerned about being overwhelmed, I decide to deploy a Faller cell on the other side of the table to force my opponent to divide his forces.

A Faller cell storms out of a building into the parking lot of the burning supermarket, attempting to flank the MIB.

MIB immediately responds by sending their heavily armed B team.

My ploy worked. But now the Fallers with primarily close range firearms are unable to hit the MIB carrying long range firearms. The MIB understandably keep their distance and pour fire into the Faller cell.

Things are not going well for the Fallers. Morale is dropping because the Faller cell in the building is wiped out and the MIB is chipping away at the police-Fallers. The Faller senior leader has joined the police-Fallers to boost their morale.

All the gunfire cuased windows to break and suddenly an unprotected MIB is unable to resist the egg feromones. He runs inside the building and is already half eggsumed when team A shreds both him and the egg in a hail of fire.

The Faller cell guarding the bus decide they can't do anything where they are and they run to the sound of the guns.

More Fallers deploy in the Umbrella building.

But they are unable to prevent the police Fallers being wiped out to a man.

 In a desperate move I decide to charge the MIB.

Although very cinematic, it turns out to be not that smart. Both sides massacre each other and the senior leader of the MIB is killed. The loss of the entire Faller cell does however knock my force morale down to 2....

Too late I bring in the long range Faller cell.

They start picking off the MIB behind the cars, forcing them to withdraw to cover.

MIB team B are doing the same to the Faller cell in the parking lot. Unfortunately the Fallers lose their leader which brings Faller Force morale down to zero.

The MIB lost their senior leader, most of team A and all of team C and were unable to get the laptop. They did force the Fallers to retreat from this part of the town. From the opposition they encountered, the surviving ranking MIB member, Corporal Hicks, concludes that the entire town is infested with Fallers. He orders the retreat and calls in the tactical nuke to eradicate the Fallers...

MIB vs the Fallers part 3: Who Goes There?

After the confrontation with the Fallers in Part 1 and Part 2, MIB agents B, L, R and Y have made their way back to MIB facilities. Since the MIB failed to capture the Egg (see Part 1), HQ is worried that in fact one of the returned agents was eggsumed and turned into a Faller infiltrator.

In order to reveal the alien inside one of the agents and contain the damage, the four agents are moved to a remote polar MIB facility. They are accompanied by agents V and I, who are certain not to have been egssumed and can be trusted completely.

The game (using FfoL rules) starts with the MIB agents lined up to have their blood tested in the infirmary by the facility doctor. Agents V and I supervise the procedure and are the only ones armed (I don't have unarmed stand-in miniatures for the other MIB agents).

My son played the MIB and didn't know which of the agents was the Faller. The information he had was that at least one of the agents was suspected to be a Faller, only agents V (Leader) and I (Specialist, Medic) were armed and only agent V knew the access code to open the armory door. The mission was to find and terminate the Faller impersonating MIB agent(s).

The MIB facility 

I played the Fallers (all fearless and tough as nails) when they were revealed.

The good doctor had put on body armor to have some protection in case the Faller would jump him and tested agent B first, who turned out to be human and moved to the door leading to the armory. Next in line was agent R.

Agent R was the Faller! To my son's surprise I revealed that the doctor was also a Faller! He (now under my control) opened his medical briefcase, pulled out a pistol and handed it to agent R. The doctor subsequently charged agent I.

And smashed his skull with the briefcase, putting him out of action.

Agent R then fired his pistol at agent V, causing only a point of shock.

Slighty panicked by a shaken leader and the loss of his specialist at the start of the game, my son quickly moved agents L and Y away from the Fallers to agent B by the door.

Meanwhile the Faller leader made his way through the storage room towards the infirmary.

More of the facility personnel turned out to be Fallers and a knife wielding technician joined the Faller crew, entering from the rec room.

Favorable cards allowed the mostly unarmed MIB agents to escape the infirmary and head towards the armory.

One more Faller, carrying a crowbar, joined the crew.

Faller agent R rushed through the door and engaged in close combat with his former colleagues. Agent L succumbed to the avalanche of blows, but Agent Y managed to kick the Faller back into the infirmary and cause a point of shock.

The surviving MIB agents had almost reached the armory, but the Fallers were closing in.

The Faller doctor charged agent V and tried his assault with the medical briefcase again. He was however no match for agent V's superior fighting skills and went down with a wound.

Undeterred, the Fallers kept advancing while agent V succeeded with his task roll and opened the armory door.

Quickly, agent B grabbed an SMG (and exchanged his blood-splattered tie for a clean one).

Only agent Y hadn't made it to the armory yet. He was assaulted by a Faller and hit repeatedly with a crowbar, causing a wound and multiple shock. Fortunately for the MIB, the FfoL rules (as we read them) state that when shock exceeds the number of remaining wounds, the victim retreats away from the enemy. In this case into the safety of the armory. 

Before being able to slam the armory door shut, the Faller with the knife charged agent V. Agent V fumbled his close combat roll and his SMG was kicked out of his hands. Through an expertly executed series of martial arts moves however, agent V takes away the knife from the Faller, drives the knife into his head and kicks him out of the armory.

Two down, four more to go

The MIB agents took the time to recover from their wounds and shock while the Fallers were banging on the armory door, unable to get in.

The Faller doctor tried to treat his wound but accidentally inflicted a new wound.

Agents B and Y, now all armed with an SMG (and new, clean ties), stocked up on ammo and took up position behind the desk, facing the door. Agent V transferred the door controls to a terminal and stood by to open the door.

Incredibly, agent V failed his task roll 2 times ("remember: entering the wrong code 3 means you are locked out" I told my son), but on the third attempt the door opened and agents B & Y shred the Faller leader and the crowbar wielding Faller.

Faller agent R opened fire on the MIB agents, but was gunned down himself. The Faller doctor tried to patch him up, but failed.

In a last ditch attempt the Faller doctor charged agent V with his briefcase. Being a veteran of close combat against briefcase wielding opponents, agent V took out the Faller doctor effortlessly, ending the game with an MIB victory.

We had a lot of fun playing the game. The Fistful of Lead rules are perfect for these sort of small scale skirmish games. We kept forgetting to consistently apply dice roll modifiers belonging to the different traits of the crews though.