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

Monday 19 May 2014

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.

38 comments:

  1. I'm guessing Mathyoo erhm I mean Mathias makes it out alive. But do your best to get some teeth marks in him! The action is all about to start. I'm looking forward to it. A very nice set up with lots of opportunities. Make sure you NOM NOM NOM on Mathais.

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    1. I can only state at this stage that I didn't play him.

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  2. No, no, no! Mathyoo (sorry, I meant Mathias) can not be allowed to be killed, bitten or infected! I note you have included not-Fran, not-Ray and now not-Mathyoo in your campaign so far. Who next, I wonder?

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    1. Thanks Bryan, canyou guess who Mattias is a guest of ?
      I have many more in the characters in the pipeline, let me assure you.

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    2. Seeing as Mathyoo/Mathias stayed with me for a week last year I have a pretty good idea who he is staying with, you cheeky monkey! Glad to hear that more bloggers may get an outing in your campaign. Damn, but I wish I'd thought of this idea first!

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    3. Haha, any resemblence to persons living, dead or undead in my campaign is purely coincidental and unintentional, yes siree.

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  3. All poised nicely for the action to begin, looking forward to the update.

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    1. Thanks Micheal, I hope it doesn't disappoint.

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  4. Looking forward to it Joe, what's the mistake?

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    1. Thanks AL, if you can't see it then it's not there right ?

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  5. Looking forward to the next report :)

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    1. Thanks HW, I'll try and make it interesting

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  6. Love the board - what is a "PEF"?

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    1. Thanks Kasper, a PEF is a "Possible enemy force" in the Atz system. PEFs have their own rules and can represent either nothing or humans or zombies and so on.

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  7. Nice set up.
    Waiting for the next report...

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    1. Merci Shuby, it'll follow soon enough.

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  8. Lovely set up Joe.
    I remember your post on those fences and being very impressed at the time, I was only a lurker then.
    Great way to set up the action as well. Looking forward to the next episode.

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    1. Thanks Bob, the fences were a bit rushed (not even painted) as I only wanted them for this scenario. I lurked for ages too on several blogs.

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  9. Sounds good. Looking forward to seeing this scenario get off the ground!

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    1. Thanks Brummie, it'll be all done and dusted soon.

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  10. Ah, you tease! I thought from the title that you had posted the result of a game, but now I'll have to wait to find out what happened...

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    1. Well at least you got something even if only the morning where nothing happened.

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  11. SO MUCH looking forward to this! Quite happy to hear you got the spark for gaming back on mate!

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    1. Thanks LS, I blame the lighter, warmer days

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  12. Hahaha - I predict an infection. It is how I actually felt these days. Clearly you are involved in some sort of dark magic and voodoo rituals - abusing innocent game to rule the world!

    Table looks downright fantastic, Joe. It also looks like you'll be throwing a lot of dice for all those decisions - doesn't that slow you down too much?

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    1. Thanks Mathyvoodoo (oops gave it away !)
      The dice rolling is very quick in actual fact as I've mostly predetermined what I'm going to throw for. I've also got the luxury of being able to set-up one day and play the next as I did in this instance.

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  13. I love your setup, the construction site is one of my favorites! That car wreck is very cool as well. I can't wait to see you recap when you get some action going on this table!

    Get cracking! hehehe :)

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    1. Thanks N667, quite a compliment coming from someone whom I think has a great set-up.
      Like most of my scratchbuilds, the construction site cost me probably less than £2 to make.

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  14. Very cool! I wait with bated breath to see what happens... :-)

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    1. Thanks Red Dog, the write-up will follow shortly.

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  15. And next on the battlefield tour itinery... the zombie attack! Looking forward to seeing what happends Joe

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    1. Thanks ZA, next week's instalment is making it's way to the presses.

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  16. Mistake? Obvious Zabadak, you guys still drive on the wrong side of the road.

    It's a great table, your little construction worker mini earns his pay.

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  17. Thanks Baconfat, you win the cigar ! It wouldn't have been first time I'd have had to redo a 'turn' if it had been important enough, luckily it wasn't !/
    'Bob' just happened to be handy as he was one of the last bacth I painted up.

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  18. Hi again Joe. I'm nominating you for a Liebster Award. You check out what it's all about here http://reddogofwar.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/private-liebster-reporting-for-duty.html

    Cheers, Paul :-)

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    1. Thanks Paul, I'm already a recipient of this, but I appreciate the sentiment.

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  19. Lovely scenery. I looks really fun to play.Keep up the good work Joe.
    Cheers/Peter

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