B7: Hostage (Part One)

Here's a Blake's 7 battle report which we played with the semi-official Blake's 7 7TV rules from Crooked Dice. The idea was that Professor Arkan was being held in a federation secure facility on the red planet, Prydan Minor. He was being interrogated by Servalan for information about Star One. Meanwhile Travis, sure that Blake might want to rescue Arkan, had brought some mutoids in as an extra defence. The local Prydan resistance had agreed to work with Blake to help him break into the Federation base.

There were two Victory Points up for grabs for rescuing Arkan and two for getting to the power plant and blowing that up. We also drew the event card with the extra Victory Point scientists, so put them in the interrogation room.

The red planet of Prydan is home to the famous mercury swamps of exploding headberries.

The top secret Federation research station is located under the surface of Prydan. The research is primarily involved in turning the headberries into a nutritional food supplement, but also includes top of the range torture facilities.

The eight members of the Prydan People's Front await the word from the Liberator that the attack should proceed. Unfortunately, when ordering their lo-vis combat fatigues, they forgot to mention they inhabited a bright red planet.

Federation troopers patrol around the entrance to the base.

And they have the inside guarded, too.

Meanwhile, in the plant room, Travis has a nasty surprise waiting in the shape of his mutoids. (We've souped the mutoids up a bit from the Crooked Dice stats. They now have 4 Str, 4 Def, Carbine 3+ and Fanatic. Coz that's closer to how they were done in the show, imo. For all those bonuses, however, they now cost 20 Ratings.)

Servalan, interrogating Professor Arkan, is informed that an unknown vessel has been detected in geostationary orbit above the facility.

Vila and Cally, down and safe, but slightly off target. They now need to cross the mercury swamp to reach the base. And Vila is the only one who can open the security doors (Although Orac could do it, too, they didn't bother telling Vila.)

Blake and the rest, down and safe, during one of Prydan's famous linear eclipses.

The Prydan People's Front charge in...

...taking out a number of the Federation troopers.

 Blake's crew are a bit more circumspect.

Travis gives the order for most of the Federation troopers to withdraw inside the base.

The rest of the troopers put up a fight. They are heavily outnumbered...

...but they manage to kill a couple of the resistance before being overrun.

Cally and Vila get trapped in the mercury swamp. A couple of the berries explode, injuring Cally. "Careful, Cally. I'm allergic to explosions."

And Blake makes it to the entrance, "Avon, you lead the way."
"I'm not stupid, I'm not expendable, and I'm not going!"

Blake's crew pile into the base to discover that the Feds are lying in wait.

Vila and Cally eventually make it to the entrance. "Cally, wait for me, Cally! Where is everyone?"

"You see, Servalan. Blake will rescue me."
"You fool, Arkan. Don't you see? Blake has fallen into my trap! All that bad rolling in the first couple of turns was simply to lure him into a false sense of security. As soon as he gets into the base, he will be surrounded. And then I will start rolling sixes!"

To be continued...