A Day in the 'Burbs (2)

Our hero Mattias (Civilian, Initiative 4, Leadership and all other skills 3) is making his way towards the rendezvous point with the arrival of his pre-booked taxi imminent.
Elsewhere in the area, nothing much is happening although there is a very repugnant person staggering in his direction.

(The red car has sped off, not generating any new zombies and the closest  zombie is not within 6"for recognition.Two of the three PEFs (the two '5s') both increase their distance from Mattias and the three zombies present stagger slowly toward Mattias.) Bob continues to sup his tea, meaning he must obviously be British.)

As Mattias makes his way to the exit he recongises the zombie for what the danger that it presents whilst a jogger comes into view on the opposite side of the table. Strangely the zombie is confused by this and remains unmoved.

(The zombies didn't activate, which I  took to mean the PEF's didn't either)




 The taxi arrived at speed but would have to slow for the corner.





Whilst Mattias wasn't aware that his taxi's arrival would be very soon,  he decided to join the jogger and start running, whilst shouting a warning to the jogger.  Both he and the jogger were moving at 9" now (I have a standard movement of 6" rather than the 8" of ATZ).
The zombie had finally made his mind up and having decided that his meal was now getting away, he headed for the closer of the two potential snacks.

(Elsewhere the PEFs did whatever PEFs seem do in my games which was move back and forward to little effect.
The arrival of the taxi could have potentially generated zombies, but as elsewhere on the board, none were forthcoming. My 50% chance of at least one zombie being spawned  each turn (1d6 -3) had so far generated only one and
The "early" taxi arrival marked the start of only the third turn.)

 At this juncture we thought the scenario was all but done and dusted, however the PEFS decided they would attempt to participate. The one closest to Bob  caused him to glance over his shoulder and raised the ER of the encounter by 1.

The PEF in the woods closed in on the Taxi which had  successfully negotiated the corner at a speed of '2' (12" in my games)

Mattias tried to put on a burst of speed whilst still shouting at the jogger, but even if he was still well short of the taxi and the jogger would catch up









One of the spawn points was depleted and wouldn't generate further zombies (not that it had anyway). 

The view from fat boy as he realises his snacks are escaping.

With victory all but in the bag, the civilians decided it was time to take a breather and rest whilst the zombies closed in on them making this turn quite tense.(they failed to activate_
The remaining PEF's in the woods added to the tension and both moved  towards Mattias, resulting in him being a bit spooked by the presence of some woodland critter (they were both revealed as nothing) The taxi closed the distance to the pair of breathless joggers but would take another turn to stop. before they could get in whilst the zombies were now closing in.
The civilians acted first in what would be the penultimate turn of the game, the taxi driver bringing his cab to a halt..
 The closest Zombie attacked, resulting in the jogger whilst not pooping his pants, admirably fighting the zombie off with his walkman, resulting in them both being locked in combat.








As the melee wore on into a further turn, the zombies once more stood and watched, distracted no doubt by the inept dice throwing on display, however the Jogger was still locked in melee.  Mattias decided he had had enough and took the opportunity to jump in the waiting cab, as the taxi driver decided just to ease out from the kerb.

"Mmmmm, tinned meat"

Right on cue, just as it looked like Mattias would pull away, the Jogger broke free from the inept zombie death struggle and headed for the taxi, not leaving sufficient time for the taxi to make anything other than a token movement away from the zombie, who in turn took the opportunity to attack the vehicle and bounce off in an undignified fashion.

"Damn meals on wheels ! Come back !"

 As the taxi sped off into the blue yonder and safety, it did manage to side-swipe fat-boy before disappearing. He, of course, promptly stood up !

With that final action it was decided to call it a day even though there was at least one loose end still to tie up - Bob ! One of the few zombies generated by the noise of the taxi had spawned near Bob and had made its way toward him, but that situation has yet to be resolved (if indeed it will).

This was a relatively quick game (less than two hours), that could have gone very differently had the taxi not arrived so early in game, but it did give me food for thought as to how my version of the ATZ/FFO rules should be heading. The spawn points worked well and I'll be keeping that idea, but other experimental ideas hadn't and they'll be amended. 

So who was the jogger ? (He's your average citizen with all skills at '3' save for a Fitness skill of '4' and no attribute assigned to him)



As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated, as are your suggestions to naming the jogger !

A Day in the 'Burbs

I finally got the enthusiasm up to play a scenario I've had set-up since November last year, the table being set up as a suburban area of Perdition, called St. Mary's Heights, which borders on a rural area known locally as the battlefield.
The table area is 6 foot x 4 foot.
The photograph shows all the relevant features in place before the game started.
The red circles show where the only two humans are at the start.
In the top left corner is the 'hero' of the story, one Mathias Groschen, a visiting history student. He's just finished his morning's tour of the battlefield (off table), and is now making his way back to where he's booked his taxi. The cab will arrive on a roll of a '6' at the beginning of each turn and will come to a stop in the green area. the taxi will arrive at one of the four roads and will exit (hopefully) from one of the two opposite ones, all diced for randomly at the time.

Mathias top right, zombie left.

The yellow circles above show the starting points of the three zombies diced for at the start. Bob didn't generate any as he wasn't controlled by the player and was really just local eye candy.
The photograph on the left shows the closest zombie to our hero, actually standing on a spawn point.
The spawn points will generate zombies every turn, dependant on the encounter rating of the scenario.
Whilst this scenario is in an Urban area it should have an ER rating of 3, but as this is only day one of the apocalypse it will be classed as having an ER of 2 and zombies will be generated as if they are in a rural setting.
The next photo shows one of the other starting zombies and one of the six spawn points, placed every two feet around the edges of the table (i.e. not at the corners).
Zombies will be generated from these each turn when the zombies activate on a throw of 1d6-3. Normally they would generate 1d6 -2 for a suburban area and 1d6 -1 for an urban area.

Bob having a cuppa

The PEF closest to Bob

The spawn points can also be depleted on a roll of 1, indicating that no more zombies will be generated from that point.
Bob took very little part in the game, but there was a PEF (Initiative/REP 5) very close to him at game start - it can be seen just behind the billboard.

In the woods, not far from Mattias's start point can be seen the third starting zombie and the remaining two PEFs (another '5' and a '3').
The green terrain is a 4 foot x 2 foot board with an old GW flock mat cut and glued to it, kindly donated to my set-up by my son. (as were a lot of the trees). The trees and the green terrain board and the very hastily put-together fences were all made with this scenario in mind last year.

Spot the mistake !

Like the random civilians, vehicles were also diced for, for each 2 foot x 2 foot piece of road terrain, needing a 6 to indicate one present.
The dice dictated that a single vehicle was present and it's actual position, facing etc were also diced for. The die at the rear of the vehicle indicated its speed in multiples of 6 inches - in this case it was down to a speed of '2' because of
the corner.
Further vehicles and civilians entering the table would be diced for each turn, as would time of day changes and events. The latter was not linked to the initiative rolls of the zombies and humans, but to a separate dice roll and would require a double one or two to indicate an event occurring (the starting ER being 2).

Next week I'll post what actually happened in this scenario, but that it for now.
As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Oil Drum Goodness

I was chatting to a friend about getting him to make me some oil drums, as he was currently experimenting with casting resin for both his own wargame projects and some non-wargame related items. The results of my request can be seen in the photograph.
As he was already in the process of casting some wooden barrels for his own use he kindly added some to my "order" along with some chests (very piratey) and some petrol cans.
Note: None of the items shown in any of the photos has had anything done to them as yet, being hot of the presses so to speak.

First up are the oil drums, useful for most of the 20th century and well into the 21st century, used all around the world.
The ones in the background are in fact the same height as those in the foreground, the effect due to the fore-shortening of the picture (and nothing whatsoever to do with my poor photography skills - no sir! ).
The slightly out of focus zombie is a Wargames Factory plastic figure shown for scale. 

Next up are  a few of the wooden barrels I received, nothing spectacular maybe, but perfectly adequate for my purposes.

The "piratical style" chests are small but beautifully formed with sufficient detail on them to be able to determine what they are at a glance.
These were quite an unexpected bonus and very well received, but like the wooden barrels it is also a temptation to resume my unfinished Pirate project.
Hmmm.

  And we're back in the room with something aimed at a modern setting.
These were yet another very welcome surprise and one that can be used in modern zombie settings without much trouble.
I personally think that these petrol cans are great, they can also have all sort of uses too and like all the other pieces these have some flash on them, but nothing that a file won't shift very easily. I also had to 'play' around with the photo to get the detail showing on them.





 
Amongst his other current projects are sheets of cobblestones, roof tiles and shingles, to go with the various houses he's currently working on, most though are still a work in progress. I've asked him to put some of his pictures up on line on his facebook page (Captain Jack's) which will no doubt happen in time. He has also made a lot of Futuristic models, and has a 'line' of hand crafted (and cast) vehicles too; if he gets round to putting pics up I'll put a link to them for you all to see.

That's it for this week, I'll keep whatever it was I was going to post this week for next time

As always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Tumbleweed

Yes, my current paint table looks like this photograph, with a representative piece of hedge acting as tumbleweed. If you listen very carefully you can just about hear a village church bell in the distance.
In actuality I've just finished painting two dozen or so figures who now only have a coat of varnish to put on them  before they too are declared finished.
I then of course have the next problem as to where on earth to put them.
At the start of this new (to me at least) wargaming zombies venture, I bought a figure case that could hold 400 figures to store my efforts. Sadly now the case is now full and overflowing with zombies, police, civilians, survivors etc. (at least 50 figures currently have no home to go to).
To say my paint table is completely bare is a very slight exaggeration as these three still remain to be completely finished.
The figure on the left is "Edna the cat lady" (if I recall correctly a Black Cat figure that has "starred" in many of Colgar6's  ATZ adventures.
The other two ar Foundry figures from their Street Violence range and make great survivor figures, having weapons, helmets, gasmasks backpacks and all the paraphernalia that you'd associate with survivors.

At the other end of the table are a few figures that need basing up/ An army officer (a present) that will be painted up as a Police Chief and several dogs (and a single cat !) that I bought about a year ago. The six small dogs I may mount as a single,  a double and a triple which can then be used as counters (For PEF's - potential enemy forces, the unknown entities at the start of games. I still have both my clowns and my Hazmat team based and undercoated and they'll be loaded up onto the paint table next.

I'll now be spending the rest of the week slowly recuperating from an exhaustive camping long weekend and trying to catch up on all the blogs I've missed, hence the short, late post this week.

As always your comments are welcomed and appreciated and apologies to anyone whose comments I haven't replied to. For some reason I'm no longer getting notification by email when anyone comments on my blog (but strangely with one or two exceptions).