Holdiay Swag (1)

Whilst I had fellow blogger Mattyoo staying with me recently, I took the opportunity to show him our local table-top/car-boot held regularly every Saturday and Sunday. In the past I bought nearly all of my fairly large collection of Lledo vehicles there for my now stalled gangster project and knew that it was also a fine source for modern vehicles from many different manufacturers.Whilst Mattyoo spent his time buying enough vehicles for a small military convoy I looked to increasing my own collection of civilian vehicles.

Most of the vehicles cost £1, although I did buy one that was £2 -shock, horror !
The ambulance above, (the £2 one) I think was a great find and scale-wise fitted very well.
Even though I do have two other ambulances, I did have one of them earmarked as a Hazmat vehicle and who can resist any model that has opening doors ?

Whilst on the medical spending spree I also nabbed this one, which whilst maybe a little under-scale for the larger 28mm figures, it's still perfectly adequate for my purposes.

No opening doors (or much other detail to be fair), but another emergency vehicle nonetheless.

Next up was a hummer, which I would describe as "well worn" (i.e. played with), but at the bargain basement price, who cold resist it , (especially as it too had opening doors).
Hummers, of course, are probably iconic vehicles for the zombie apocalypse due to the yellow one from the film Zombieland.
This one will be left as is for some time to come I suspect.

Rounding of my purchase were two of the Russian models that were sold with magazines. I've purchased quite a few of these now, but must have missed this one first time around. Other than it having a left-hand drive, it would make a superb conversion possibility for a Postman Pat van, it has the right shape after all. The Russian transfers (Decals to others) make no sense to me at all of course and in a perfect world they would be removed and the vehicle tarted up. As I'm not living in a perfect world, I'll probably never get around to it.

The final vehicle is the Russian "jeep", which I passed up buying on the last opportunity I had to purchase one, but buoyed along by my fellow shopper it was an impulse buy.
I was quite surprised by the interior detail in this model, as can be seen in the photograph below and will probably end up using this without the 'canvas' top.
It is one of those vehicles that will need a re-paint before use as it's too "Russian Military", even for my lax taste.
The 'sun roof' though does look a bit odd.

  
Other than the slightly undersized medical truck, I was very pleased with these purchases, but it does mean I will have to look for another vegetable basket to store my growing collection in (making five in all).

With these five vehicles and my purchase from a previous shopping spree, which I'll blog about soon that was all my holiday money spent up.





With the recent flurry of modelling card-buildings, I too have once more launched myself into yet another attempt at getting a passable card-building completed. I'll be  blogging about this in a future post too and hopefully I'll also be concluding the recent 'Burbs series of games.

And that is they say is it for this week, although I do have a new follower "Stephen" to welcome (it appears he doesn't have a blog to follow) and of course to once more say that your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

Return to the Burbs (4)

Zombies to left of them, zombies to the right of them...

We left our two heroes Scott and Mattias, reaching safety at the edge of the table and decided that under the cover of darkness they could easily make their way to Scott's house, so they could find themselves some weapons and get out of the area.

Springwater Hill

 The photograph on the left shows their start position in yellow, zombies in red and their immediate objective, the supermarket employees entrance in blue.
Unfortunately it doesn't show the Potential enemies forces (PEF's), but it does show the myriad of dice still left on the table from the previous game.

"No running ahead of me Mattias"

They would start the game at the front of Scott's house. a a 





There were about a dozen or so zombies on the table at the start and all the spawn points were back functioning and there was less chance of traffic.
Scott was armed with his "trusty" reproduction Katana whilst Mattias had the complimentary Wakazashi that came with it, they also both had a secondary one-handed improvised weapon.
There plan was to see if there was anyone in the supermarket, as the employees cars were still there from the previous day. With their plan all set they took off (at a run of course).
Luckily for the two of them, the zombies were seemingly distracted and took little notice of them and the three PEFs (ahead and to the left of them) were similarly idle.

"Yes Scott"

As they made their way across the road the zombies did start to take an interest in their apparent breakfast and another was attracted by the movement.
The PEF's however continued to be disinterested in the whole proceedings.

"Briands, erm I mean brains"

Stopping in the middle of the road probably wasn't a good idea, something to do with a heated discussion on the merits of searching the bins I'm guessing, but it did allow the zombies a sporting chance of catching up.

Two PEFs can be seen behind the fence

Even as the intrepid duo were once more about to get underway a family of three appeared, fully armed,  in Laslo park behind them. Father (BA pistol), a mother (frying pan), and a child (football helmet), being my typical civilians they all had abilities of '3' except the child who had melee, shooting and driving skills of '2'. 

A family of three pops up !

"Ignore the bins !"

This was an excellent opportunity to try out their newly acquired weapons to help a family that was going to be in trouble very soon. So our heroes picked up their pace and headed for the back of the supermarket, hoping that the family they left in their wake would be a suitable distraction to their course of action.
 (Late news just in: "Officials report chivalry is officially dead in Springwater Hill")
 It was on the cards that this wasn't going to end well for the forsaken family in Laslo park, the child followed Scott and Mattias' example and did a runner, whilst the father bravely fought of a zombie as his wife fell by his side.

"Bugger !"

 Ahead of our duo another familiar face emerged running - Brendan Cram, having the added effect of bringing more zombies toward our heroes.

General view, the child can just be made out behind our heroes.

"Look Mattias, more zombie bait..."

"Head for the park she said"

Having got the hang of this hunting down food thing, the zombies once more attacked the chap in the park; he managed to fend the first off, knocking it down, but died horribly at the hands (and teeth) of the second one.

"We'll be OK there she said..."

"Save me please misters"

 Brendan did a runner, back from whence he had come whilst the kid from the park ran ahead of the pair of heroes, now sauntering toward their goal, allowing the child to be some sort of "scout", all of this commotion of course attracted more zombies to their area.

"Stop running so fast, damn you"

Ignoring the child's plea for help (allegedly) Mattias took off  like the wind, whilst  Scott was right behind him.

"Mmmm, family bite sized child"

"Everyone over here, form a queue"

The kid, having stopped to catch his breath, as can be imagined, didn't fare too well being assaulted by the two nearby zombies. His helmet, used as a makeshift weapon broke in his first swing which left him on the ground from the first zombie attack and eviscerated mess by the second. The remainder of his family in the park were also now doing their bit for Zombie Aid and feeding the masses whilst the Zeds were growing in numbers.
The  two remaining PEFs moved up to the corner of the Supermarket and behind it.
Almost as soon as it had started the feast in the park stopped and the two zed's there started to wonder where their next meal was coming form.

"Run rabbit, run rabbit"

An event cropped up in the form of yet another runner, making her way across the table. (from spawn point 6 to spawn point 2, not particularity interesting really - it having no effect in game)

"Erm, its locked "

"Who's the daddy now?"

Scott and Mattias were joined at the door to the supermarket, by Brendan called over by Scott.
 Mattias, tried to open the door, but found it to be locked !

Brumm, brumm, SPLAT !

 Behind the supermarket the 'boy' was attracting zombies like flies to shit and the rare car appearing on the roads made mincemeat out of the zombie attracted by the noise it made speeding along the main road.

"This appears locked too"

Having found the door locked, Mattias decided to try the exit, whilst Scott and Brendan banged on the door.

Popular feeding frenzy

"Run, run run"

"Thanks Dawn !"

"Umm, yep, definitely locked"

The employees door to the supermarket was unlocked by the till girl Dawn Brakes, (much to Scott's and Brendans' relief) as they rushed inside. Mattias meantime stood alone wondering what to do next at his locked  door.

"Enjoying it ?", "I'm having a ball"

The zombies out the back were luckily still sidetracked by what remained of the child, whilst the female runner made her way to safety table , distracting the two zombies still in Laslo Park.

"Run from the zombies, run, run run"

"Hi, I'm Mattias, I'm with them"

Bryan and Brendan made their way to the rear of the store where a single zombie had appeared amongst the shelves (one of the PEFs, the other having raised the encounter rating of the area); there they met the manager Jack Spraggon.
Mattias took his chance and ran for the door to be greeted by Dawn.
The girl runner made it off the table to safety without incident as the two zombies in the park looked on despondently.

"Oh no it isn't"

"It's behind you "

"Let me in"

Scott took this opportunity to burble incoherently and achieved nothing whilst Mattias was still stood  making himself understood to the flustered Dawn. The zombies meantime made their way toward all the chatter going on at the door , having eventually finished picking clean every bone on the boy's body.

"I'm sorry we're closed"

 Outside the supermarket, the zombies make a bee-line for Mattias, who, in an even fight managed to knock  the lead zombie to the ground and then rushed inside the store whilst dawn locked the door behind him as quickly as possible.
 

"Take that!"

Inside the supermarket, the lone zombie attacked the manager Jake, effectively putting him out of the fight (now the floor manager ?).
Scott decided to finally put his Katana to use and attacked the zombie, obviously not going for the head as the zombie merely joined the manager on the concrete, but even as he did so Mattias rushed into the storeroom and under Scott's instruction stabbed the zombie through the eye, returning him to a more permanent state of death.




At this stage, we called the game.
The two "heroes" had effectively achieved their  their objective, had the makings of a party of four (or five if Jake the manager survives) and the game was effectively spent as were we.
I too realise the frustration of a split aar and decided to relate this in full, despite its length and
there will be another instalment in this continuing saga soon (when real-life allows it to eventually gets played).
 Thanks oonce more to Bryan/Vampifan for taking the phots and for noth himself and Mattyoo for taking the parts of the main characters.
Any resemblance to any person living dead, or undead was of course entirely intentional.

Thanks for taking the time to read through, or to at least look at the piccies and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

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.