I'm playing Space Station Zero wargame with an aim to get through the entire station, and I've decided to post battle reports about each Challenge along the way. These battle report contain minor spoilers, although there are a lot of branches in the campaign so what happens in my campaign is unlikely to also happen exactly the same in your campaign.
As written, the first Challenge is the universal starting point for all players of the campaign. It's the first room explorers enter after leaving the hangar of the station, so of all the many Challenges in the campaign this is the one everyone is guaranteed to experience. But that doesn't mean everybody is going to experience the same Docking Bay! Challenge 1 has a random table providing a variety of threats, so not all Docking Bay experiences are exactly alike.
The first time I played through this challenge, I rolled live wires and ancient sentries. I also misread how many ancient sentries to put on the board, and instead of deploying 6 against my 8 crew, I deployed 6 for each crew member for a total of 48. The irony is that my crew survived the onslaught of ancient sentries only to die from walking on on live wires. This seems reflective of typical environmental hazards in Space Station Zero. It's a fun idea to have the environment play an active role in the game, but I think the authors may have underestimated the impact of having each crew member make several rolls against threats for which they likely have no protection. There's no Boots of Electrical Dampening in this game, so you take damage when you fail a test against a live wire, and you have to make that test every time you move. My crew stood still for most of the entire combat, and only afterwards ventured forward into the room, only to be electrocuted to death.
This time, however, I rolled collapsing floors and ancient sentries, and I deployed just the 6 sentries.
My Warmaster and Veteran ventured into the room first, with 3 Soldiers hanging back in the deployment zone to provide ranged cover. The team Engineer and Pilot followed, and the team Medic trailed safely behind.
The ancient sentries started advancing immediately, but even before they had a chance to move the Soldiers were already actively sniping them. My crew comes from a military vessel, and the Soldiers each have several re-rolls for Combat (Co) each turn. They easily out-gunned the ancient sentries, and in fact between the warmastor, Veteran, and Soldiers my crew removed 2 sentries during this first round.
Much of the crew moved this round, though, so they did have to check for collapsed floors. Most don't encounter a collapsing floor, and those who do manage to jump aside before falling.
Everyone except my Soldiers continue to advance. Two sentries reach the Warmaster and Veteran. The Warmaster takes damage, but the sentries are swiftly removed from the battlefield thanks to sniper coverage and a very deadly electrical melee weapon wielded by the Veteran.
More collapsed floor checks, and the Engineer falls through the floor!
The Medic advances to the Warmaster's position for healing.
The Veteran and the Pilot advance to get a better angle on the remaining sentries. They deal damage but the sentries are still on the board, and they advance and deal damage to the Veteran.
The Medic heals the Warmaster, who blasts the sentries with his rocket launcher at range, removing one sentry.
The soldiers advance and finish off the final sentry at range. Nobody falls through the floor this round.
With the final sentry gone, the Challenge ends.
Everybody gains XP. Falling through a floor in this room doesn't impose an injury or death roll, so the Engineer is able to climb back into the room and rejoin the crew, no worse for the wear.
There are two possible exits, so I rolled to decide which door the crew would take into the station. The dice decide that they go toward Challenge 3: Repair Bay!
Photo by Seth Kenlon, Creative Commons cc0.