Sicario 3: Rainy Patrol (A Warfighter campaign)

Campaign situation at the start

Victory points: 8

Mission points: 6

Mission adjustment: add 6 to the objective's hostile value.

I spend all 6 mission points to give Torres Guts skill (spend XPs to remove suppression) and Explosives (bonuses using explosive attacks). I figure that she knows Diaz well enough now to be able to keep him motivated and she has been throwing grenades around long enough to know how best to use them.

A Rainy Patrol

The rain is pouring down. It's a miserable day for a patrol but the Colonel says they must go, so go they must. The objective is a drug shipment and the Colonel has assigned Rodriguez to the team for this mission.

"You'll need the extra firepower," he said reassuringly.

Torres is not happy. She is pretty certain that Rodriguez is on the take, and would have done something about it, but she cannot prove anything yet. They set off into the rain. Things quickly go bad as the instructions they were given do not match the ground they were deployed to.

Can't believe that Torres had to use all her actions to draw new cards until I got a location to play! That's 15 cards into the deck before a location card turned up.

The route to the objective

Eventually, she gets them on the right route, and soon they are heading for a marshy area near the base. Time to get their feet wet. Literally. And then things get hot. An ambush party is waiting for them already! They settle in and open fire. There is a lot of noise but few results other than forcing the hostiles to keep their heads down. A grenade causes the ambush party some issues, but it seems like the rain is affecting everyone's aim. After what seems like an age, Torres finally downs the last of the hostiles, but has burned through two full mags in the process. Things have not started well and they still have a long way to goMoving on, the team once more gets lost!

Again, Torres has to use two discard and draw actions to get a location card. sigh

Opposition is light as they make the climb through the rocky ground, but the team is still burning through its ammo. At this rate they will have nothing left by the time they reach the objective, if they reach it and do not get lost on the way again.

Looks like the maps are right this time. As Torres sighs in relief and directs the team to a stream they need to cross to reach the objective, suddenly another ambush team ducks up. This time, they make short work of the ambushers and quickly push on. Pausing to catch their breath, Torres notices some useful gear among the ambushers' kit and quickly appropriates it.

"Are we ready?" Torres asks quietly.

Diaz and Rodriguez nod in the affirmative.

"Ok, let's go."

They move on the objective and suddenly the place is swarming with cartel. The moment's preparation proves to be enough. Torres directs the other's fire and soon cartel are falling like ninepins. There are still some left though, and those are advancing on Torres' position. She orders Diaz and Lopez to advance on the objective. With any luck they can divide and conquer the enemy, using the hostiles' own movement against them.

Hostiles, Captain! Fahsands of 'em!

The plan works. Working together, the team whittles down the cartel while keeping the hostiles' heads down, but only just in time. They bug out with the drugs and now all they need to do is get back to base before the rest of the cartel members turn up.

Results

Victory Points: +5 = 13

Mission Points: +5 = 5

Mission adjustment: add 6 to the objective's hostile value / add 1 to the cost of all future skill card purchases

Well, I don't mind paying a bit extra for skills.I'm just glad that I did not get another add to the hostile value. That made this mission scary enough. I mostly remembered the rules while playing this time around too, so that is a bonus.

It was frustrating at the start that I could not seem to draw location cards. That added time pressure and tension to the game. On the other hand, I did well with shooting. I got good cards to support the shooting attacks and managed to keep the enemy suppressed so they never got a shot off at me, even if I did burn through ammo in the first half of the game. Thanks to the early lack of location cards, this game came right down to the wire. Good fun.