Welcome to my blog, the story of my continuing journey into the World of Zombie Wargames.

Monday, 11 August 2014

Return to the Burbs (3)

"Ooh, pizza"
Last week we left our two 'heroes' standing arguing at the garbage bins  (they'd actually failed to activate) and most of the zombies that were generated seemed to be heading in their direction.
Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour they legged it in the hope of getting to a vehicle, breaking into it, finding the car keys inside (or hot wiring it), starting it up, driving off  and all before the zombies made meals out of the two of them -what could possibly go wrong ?
"Wait for me, you..."


As both of them were without weapons, they would only have a 50-50 chance against a zombie, not good odds  and they attempted a fast move over the fence, Mattias made it over and didn't wait for Scott (after all you don't have to run faster than a zombie in the apocalypse just faster than your mate!).

Zombies tucking in




Not far away,  more zombies had spawned close to their position, but were luckily more interested in the newly opened deli pavement, just outside the supermarket.





At the front of the Supermarket, traffic was still attracting more zombies, headed towards the chap in the brown suit (later to be called superman)

Whilst Scott still had some sway (little though it was) over Mattias they agreed to make for the closest vehicle betting on the closest zombies in front of them being more interested in their meal.
"Going somewhere ?"





"I would so not have driven off without you...."






Whilst Mattias peered through the window of the vehicle to spot keys Scott managed to haul ass over the fence and catch up. As luck would have it, the keys weren't in sight (OK, so it was bad luck and the door was locked too for good measure).One bit of luck that our dynamic duo did have however is that the zombies feast was just around the corner out of their line of sight.
Lucky because if either of them witnessed it, it would have been their first time) and they would undoubtedly have been stunned !
"Super(market) man" defeats two zombies in quick succession and then ran for safety whilst a local stood watching "not bovvered" and  chewing gum presumably. 







 "Oh feck...." 

With the recent turn of events at the last vehicle, they decided to head for Scott's neighbour's jeep, at least they wouldn't have to break into that.
Just what they needed
However, nothing is ever simple with these two. As they neared the jeep they realised that the newly poured concrete and approaching zombie was probably going to be a bit too much for the two of them to tackle.

Lunch queue forming
The tail-enders
Once more the two took to their heels and jumped the fence whilst more zombies closed with them to their front and rear.




Elsewhere the traffic had stopped flowing (it wasn't going to have any further effect on this scenario so I called a halt to the chance of any more arrivals of vehicles or people), but the flow of zombies hadn't.
"Not so super now are you, meat ?"
 "Superman" decided he was out of breath and stopped running and went down to gloriously rolled treble ones by the zombie (low is good btw) giving the zombies three successes against his single one. This would have the effect of drawing every nearby zombie to the subsequent feast.
"Woohoo, smorgasbord" 





And there were quite a few of them by now !









"I'm right behind you"


The remainder of the scenario was a bit of an anti-climax and turned into a something of a Benny Hill sketch as the heroes tried to escape around the back of Scott's house avoiding the zombies and heading for the safety of spawn point 2 and hidden from view. 
The  zombies gave up looking for them as they luckily went out of view. (The zombies failing to activate may have helped too.)

At this stage I called the game, the 'heroes'  had somehow blundered their was through and reached safety.



So it wasn't a very exciting game full of action, but it had all the elements I was looking for to test my own version of ATZ (and its derivatives). For our next scenario I streamlined some of my ideas that had worked but were clumsy in execution. It was interesting to note though how reluctant the two players were to enter into any form of combat with the zombies, yet "Final Fadeout" almost forces civilians to enter into combat, wrongly imo.

That's it then for this week, our two "heroes" will return with an equally gripping tale next week as I once more "Return to the Burbs" - you have been warned.

In the making of this scenario any similarity of fictional characters with persons living, dead or undead is entirely intentional .

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.


27 comments:

  1. You can't fight without weapons, imo they did exactly what they should have done and legged it. Nice batrep all the same dude!

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    1. Thanks Bob, you're right of course nd being civilians doesn't help either !

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  2. As anyone with a modicum of common sense will testify, when you are only an unarmed Rep:3 Civilian with a Melee score of 3, the best tactic is to run not fight. And guess what? It kept us both alive to "fight" (read run away) another day! I keep telling people that quite often in ATZ it is more important knowing when to run than fight. It may not read like it but that was an unbelievably tense game and that special event of the difficult terrain proved to be a life saver for Scott and Mattias.

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    1. Your're absolutely right Bryan and and for my part, even though it may not have been as exciting to read about as it was great fun to watch.
      Another factor is that the zombies in my games are a tad harderto kill than the ATZ/FFO ones.

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  3. Great fun and the 'comedy sketch' feel just added to the drama for me - brilliant!

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    1. Thanks Michael, I had the "Benny Hill" theme tune running through my head most of the game !

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  4. Well, the good news is that the characters got in plenty of practice for the hurdles race, what with all the fences they climbed! Sometimes victory is as simple as being alive at the end of the game.

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    1. Thanks C6, strangely enough the players classed it as a victory too.

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  5. That didn't feel like an anti-climax or a dull game at all! The way you wrote it up was highly entertaining. Even though there wasn't a lot of fighting (correctly too imo) there was still plenty of tension. I always enjoy these game reports :-)

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    1. Thanks paul, that's very re-assuring to know that a game with little action can still be a good read

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  6. I agree. Sometimes in ATZ it's better avoid the z to survive...
    Graet report .

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    1. Merci Shuby, un cas de "celui qui s'enfuit, vit pour combattre un autre jour" peut-ĆŖtre?

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  7. Another enjoyable burb aar. You have to like the fact that the "heroes" are about as inept as I would be in real life and not those gun toting special forces types! It just makes them seem all the more believable.

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    1. Thanks Clint, great comment though I'm not so sure two other bloggers I know may be as amused as I am right now by it

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    2. I can't speak for Mathyoo but Clint is spot on with his description of me!

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    3. "are about as inept as I would be in real life " I am not suggesting that they would be like that in real life. I am saying that is probably as I would be.

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    4. Thanks Bryan and Clint, my faith in humanity is restored.

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  8. Highly enjoyable read very tense, the loss of supermarket guy was a heavy blow I was cheering for that guy.

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    1. Thanks Robert, all three of us were actually rooting for him too.

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  9. Zombies are coming... RUN! Fun batrep

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    1. Thanks ZA, it loses a little in the relating of the tale unfortunately

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  10. They didn't get eaten success! I think how people react is quite strange like you say peoples first instinct should be to flee. All these youtube videos of zombie pranks seem to be that way until people get over the initial shock at least.

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    1. You're right Brummie, I wish I'd thought to look on you tube for those clips (I just watch the ones with evil clown pranks !). He who runs away etc....

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  11. Very nice battle-report.Enjoyed it very much.Nice pictures too.I will soon be finished with my own zombies and looking forward playing games with these.Keep up the good work Joe! :)

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    1. Thanks Ptr, the photographs were mostly taken by Bryan/Vampifan, only edited by myself.

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