Surgery, In-Laws, and Defend!

Hello all,

Well, I've managed to get an ATZ game in this week but I had to play the Defend scenario for my group a bit fast and loose as my wife was supposed to have surgery today. Which meant my mother-in-law came down to help her through the post-op and for some reason wanted to stay in the guest bedroom instead of sleeping on the couch because my ATZ board was set up with minis on the bed. Weird! ;)

Anyway, I stayed up until 1am last night finishing the game (pics and batrep to follow soon) and I discovered a couple of things. First I rolled that half my group was gone (Kaylee, Sebastian, and Neeva) while Liz, Jennifer and I were at the house with the two little girls from the Domestic Disturbance scenario from ATZ Haven. The dice said for the team not to return until 4 activations but was a bit fuzzy as to when the count started. I had them start from the first activation the zombies began attacking the barricades as otherwise Team Kaylee would make it here in no time. How do others handle this?

By the ATZ barricade rules, since 2 of the 3 people in the house had some carpentry tools it seemed like the zombies couldnt' get in very well. After all, if a survivor is on the other side with tools then even if 3 zombies tear down the barricade 1 rank then that survivor can just put it back up on their activation right? Was I doing this correctly?

Anyway, more later. Hope all are having a fun January!

Zombie Chow

A warning for those buying plastic minis

ThinkGeek is running a sale on some plastic army men and zombies...As I am big into 20mm figs (ie plastic army men) I thought this would be a great set to use to increase my variety of zombies. A few extra survivors wouldn't hurt either. So, I put them on my Amazon wishlist for Christmas.

My In-Laws (of all people!) got them for me. Great, right! Wrong! The figures are nice, well sculpted....and about 45mm tall(!) Who thought THAT was a good scale? not only are they waaay too big for my 20mm stuff, they're not even terribly useful for the standard 28mm gamers! I sent them to Dexter (from the Board of the Living Lead) to see if he could do something with them, as I can't.

The big gripe I have is that ThinkGeek didn't put their scale on the page, just that they were zombies and troopers of "traditional plastic army men". Now, is it just me or does "traditional plastic army men" bring 1/72 scale figs to mind? Or even 1/35 at the outside, not 45mm.

***This has been a Zombie Wargamers Public Service Announcement***

Zombie Chow

Welcome 2013...

...even though December 21, 2012 was kind of a bust. ;) I hope everyone had a great holiday, and that Zombie Santa brought everyone goodies. I got a trucking warehouse built-up that adds to my growing collection of buildings for my All Things Zombie games. I just need a church and a police dept. and I'm all set. I also got some of the ThinkGeek zombie army men, but alas they're closer to 30mm and so are pretty useless for my 20mm gaming. Oh well!

I'm terrible at New Year's Resolutions, but I'll try the following:

1. Do more writing, both on the THR Journal and non-Zombie stuff. I've got a gig with Flying Buffalo that I hope will bring some much-needed exposure in 2013 as well as someday seeing Victorious! by Troll Lord Games see print.

2. More zombie gaming. I've got tons of stuff now, so I have less excuse for only having 7 games total under my belt, with 5 posted. Granted FFO threw me for a loop at the end of this year but that's no excuse. More will happen!

3. Comment more on fellow Zombie Blogger's blogs. I do my best, but most Spam filter systems (ie "Prove you're not a Robot") wreak havoc with my screen reader but I will try more often. There are some great blogs out there with fine Battle Reports, I'll just try to comment on them....as best I can.

4. (Non-Internet) Finish my PhD within the next year, year and a half at most. My thesis is published, and is unique enough I think I can expand it to fill the dissertation requirement.

...Now, we'll see how long these resolutions last! LOL!

Zombie Chow

Its all in Who You Know?

Happy (Not) End of the World everyone!

...Which is probably for the best anyway as my Zombie Plan is crap. ;) Curiously enough, this is also my dad's birthday so that would have been really rough.

Anyhoo I got to thinking about my upcoming ATZ:BFFOTZ game and the concept of "Loaded" PEFs. For those who don't have Final Fade-Out, its the idea of putting pregenerated gangs or survivor groups on the Potential Enemy Forces (PEFs) table so you might have recurring NPCs in the campaign. Which is a good idea IMO and I'm glad its available...and will be one of the FFO rules I import into my ATZ game.

But it got me to thinking. Since most ATZ games are generally based on the "Star" being the player themselves (even if an idealized player), then perhaps the "Loaded" concept should be taken one step further. That is, having a chance of running into people you know, either friends, foes, or general individuals you know in Real Life(TM).

How would you do this? Give a chance that any NPC you run into is one of these folks, and then have a "Who ya know" table to roll on? Would you maybe use the Zombie rule of by rolling doubles the zombie is someone you know? A third method altogether?

Zombie Chow

PS: One of my followers pointed out today that the URL of this blog could be read as "Those whore main". :P  Thanks Tony! I wonder how many people have come here looking for a porn site?

ZC

Game 5 "In Search of Buzz", part 2

We rejoin the small band of survivors in their semi-epic quest!

 

Turn 16

Survivors 3 Zombies 2 Kid 1

Everyone else fights zombies! Michael moves to melee while Sebastian keeps firing.

Kaylee fast moves to kid and wins Meet and Greet, with the kid joining the group for the rest of the encounter. Michael melees a zombie and gets an Obviously Dead; leaving 2. The zombie from KFC starts to move toward the group at the intersection.

Turn 17

Survivors: 6 Zombies: 5

Nobody goes

Turn 18

Survivors:4  Zombies: 3

Kaylee with the kid moves to rejoin the group. Lisa and Michael returns to the group in the intersection. The zombie from KFC tromps onward towards the intersection.

Turn 19

Survivors: 3 Zombies: 3

The zombie from the south charges the group. The kid starts to scream, and will continue until rallied (acts as 3 gunshots for zombie generation). Michael rallies the kid.

Sebastian shoots at the charging zombie and misses both shots. Zombie enters melee with Sebastian.

No zombies generated

Turn 20

Survivors: 6 Zombies: 3

No (un)living zombies on board, so nobody moves.

Turn 21

Survivors: 1 Zombies: 6

Still determined to find Buzz, the ggroup moves toward the KFC building. Michael and Kaylee enter the KFC and find a zombie. Michael takes a shot but misses as the zombie is in cover. No zombie is generated from the shot. Kaylee stays by Michael to give melee cover in case of a charge.

Turn 22

Survivors: 2 Zombies: 3

The zombie attacks by charge. Michael gets a fire before melee and misses horribly. Kaylee has 3+1 die for outnumber. Zombie is quickly killed with an Obviously Dead result. Kaylee is quite the zombie smasher with that bat of hers.

No resources are found, and of course no Buzz. Fortunately, no zombies are generated by Michael’s crappy shooting.

Turn 23

Survivors: 4 Zombies: 3

Now the group decides to keep looking, and now decide to check out the apartments. Maybe Lisa’s father took shelter there? As there are no zombies on the board, their turn is skipped.

Turn 24

Survivors: 5 Zombies: 5

The team continues to apartments at section 6. Still no zombies on board.

Turn 25

Survivors: 5 Zombies: 2

The team moves to the front of the apartments, with Michael and Kaylee entering the ground floor. Since its multiple stories (3), I decide each floor will be equal to one area for searching. The ground floor is vacant.

Turn 26

Survivors: 1 Zombies: 1

Random Event! It comes up as the Drive By van as noted in ATZ Haven. Since there are no specific rules in Haven about where the encounter starts, I decide to use the zombie placement table as to where the van enters LOS. It comes up as East, so I have the van enter the board from the east road right next to the apartment parking lot (!) Their movement allows them to come right up to the rest of the group outside the apartments. Ack!

As Lisa is a Star too, her dice are used for Insight. This results in 2 successes for Drive-Byers, with Lisa getting only 1 success. So the gangers fire first. The Ganger in the back opens the side door and fires his shotgun, but gets an out of ammo result. Unfortunately this applies to subsequent rolls so he at least gets the first shot off at Lisa and the kid. Lisa covers the kid and take an Out of the Fight result. Sebastian returns fire but hits nothing. He literally can’t hit the van right in front of him? No wonder he left the police force!

There are 2 zombies generated, 1 North of the shot so I’m saying its coming down from the 2^nd story of apartments. The other comes in from the east table edge…maybe following the van?

Turn 27

Survivors: 5 Zombies:  2 Gangers 4

Michael, no doubt hearing the shot and Lisa’s scream,  rushes outside to see what’s happened. Kaylee does as well, and grabs the kid and pulls him back into the building; which I treat as equal to Rescuing Wounded in the ATZ rules. She gets 1 success and so pulls the little scamp to safety.

Sebastian fires two shots at driver, and hits with 1 shot despite cover. Driver is Obviously Dead!. Michael shoots at passenger and Shotgun dude, and both hit. The passenger guy in front seat is Obviously Dead, while shotgun dude in the back is Knocked Down. Shotgun guy fails his Recover from Knockdown test.

The apartment zombie goes either for Michael (1-3) or Kaylee+kid (4-6). I roll a d6 and he charges Michael. Despite a rear attack, the zombie loses and is Knocked Down.

The Zombie from the East hill moves towards the road and the apartments. Despite all the gunfire, no zombies are generated?

Turn 28

Survivors:6 (1)  Zombies: 6  (2)

Yet another Random Event! This time I get one of my home designs, a News Chopper arrives to take pictures of events. They will stay hovering over the group’s position (and drawing zombies as car engine) for the next 4 activations. Wheee. Right out the gate 4 zombies are generated; two from apartments (North) and 2 from the hill at section 9 (East).

Michael recovers Lisa and Sebastian clears the van of bodies. The van engine cut off, and I was using a d6 after the driver was killed (1-2 engine is cut off, 3-4 engine stays on but van is still in park, 5-6 van rolls forward randomly) and get a 1. Michael shoots zombie coming around from the hill and gets YET ANOTHER Knocked Down result. No zombie from that shot is generated…which is good considering all the ones beginning to close in on the group!

No Z generated

 

 

Turn 29

Survivors:3  Zombies: 4

The 2 apartment zombies come outside, the KD zombie stands up, and the 2 on the hill move toward the road and apartments.

 
The !@#$ van refuses to start! Typical!

Turn 30

Survivors: 4 Zombies: 2

At last, the van starts. As Lisa is OOF, Michael decides that Buzz is on his own and insists they get back to base so Lisa could get medical attention.

 

 

 

Game is Over: as a result of the events, Kaylee is now Rep 4, but is the only one to increase in Rep.

 

So ends my last pure ATZ: Better Dead Than Zed game. Game 6 is already generated as a attack on the group's base and will see the inclusion of FFO rules.

Zombie Chow

ATZ Game 5 : In Search of Buzz, Part 1

 

This game was set up as a “Search” encounter, with the group ostensibly looking for Lisa’s dad “Buzz” who was last in this location before communication was lost. The team will engage in normal searches, but are looking for Buzz. He won’t be found, as he’s already been chomped but the team doesn’t know that!

 

As usual I used the All Things Zombies: Better Dead Than Zed terrain generation table. This is the last game I’ll be playing using solely ATZ:BDTZ rules, as Game 6 will be at least 30% or so rules from Final Fade-out. More FFO rules will be imported as time goes on until we see if I’m playing BDTZ with FFO imports or FFO with some retro-BDTZ rules instead!

The terrain resulted as follows. I also used my Random building type tables to generate what kind of buildings were there, as noted in the “()” below.

Section Terrain

1          3 buildings (3 store strip mall)
2          Clear
3          2 buildings (Auto-Body shop and Power Transformer)
4          Woods
5          1 building (Grocery)
6          1 building (Apartment Building)
7          2 buildings (Small Shop and storage building)
8          1 building (Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant)
9          Hill

I also used the Random Car table, and  used Dexter’s wrecked cars on a roll of wrecks. Which gave the board 10 cars, of which 4 on the board were wrecked as noted:

 

As a change from prior games, I decided to play this game without PEFs, and go just with starting zombies and building occupants or noise generated zeds. I don’t think it made a huge difference, especially with Random Events but you be the judge.

The time was noon, and weather resolved as humid and cloudy. Two starting zombies were on the table, with one 12” North of the group’s entry point at section 7  and another 12” to the west, behind the nearer shop. The group was on foot, as I decided that the doctor Buford would remain off board with the SUV for possible pickup. Cars just make too much noise otherwise, as the end of the game details.

 

 

Turn 1

Survivors: 1            Zombies: 2

The road zombie is within Line of Sight (LOS) of the group but West zombie is not. Zombie moves south to intercept.

Kaylee attacks the zombie with bat in melee.

Michael & Sebastian draw guns but act as backup

Kaylee wins, but only knocks down the zombie.

Lisa enters melee Lisa kills zombie by Popping the Weasel.

Turn 2

Survivors: (6) 1            Zombies: (6) 2

Doubles=Random Events
A roll on my expanded Random Events table results in a Bobcat exiting the woods and charges group.

Michael shoots the animal and kills it, with no doubt objections from Lisa and Kaylee!

Michael scoots to cover while other 3 head to Ambulance to search. No Buzz found, but 1 Luxury Item is recovered.

No zombie generated by gunfire.

Western zombie follows group now in LOS by following gunshot

Turn 3

Survivors:2            Zombies:5

Michael rejoins the group and they head toward the pileup at the intersection in front of the Grocery store. They find a zombie trapped in one of the cars, but no father. The zombie isn’t a threat so they leave it be, not wanting more gunshots.

 

Turn 4
Survivors: 3            Zombies: 4

The group moves to the front of  the Grocery Store.

Michael & Kaylee enter store while Sebastian and Lisa stay outside on watch.

The building is resolved as 3 humans, two guys and an old lady. They are Chilling Residents with 4, 3 and 2 Reps. They are armed with a bolt-action rifle, pistol and knife respectively

Michael rolls Meet and Greet, humans are hostile!

Leader gets 2 successes over Michael’s 0. This would normally lead to Kaylee leaving Michael’s group, but as that does’t fit with the narrative I’ll say the hostile humans demand to “keep” the blonde and Michael can leave. Naturally, Michael walks the walk instead.

Michael wins, and gets off 2 shots and fires first. He kills the Rep 4 leader, but misses pistol guy who ducks back.

Kaylee charges old lady in melee and gets Obviously Dead result on her. The pistol guy takes leader lost test, and only gets 1 success. I decide that he will have partial cover by running through the store towards the back.

Turn 5

Survivors:5 (3)             Zombies:3             NPCs:5 (6)
Doubles again! Random Event resolves as large dog. Which is probably the pet of the two guys as he’s within the Grocery store. Michael kills as dog charges…this gives pistol guy the chance to run into the back storeroom.

Meanwhile, the following zombie outside moves toward the pileup at the intersection with LOS to the Grocery.

No zombies generated by this shot, nor the two prior ones…which I forgot to roll for earlier.

Turn 6

Survivors: 3            Zombies: 5       NPCs: 6

After hearing Michael’s gunshots, Sebastian and Lisa move into the Grocery store.

 

 

Moving into the back storeroom, Michael sees pistol guy preparing to ambush, shoots and gets a Knocked Down result. This time, the gunfire generates 3 zombies placed out in the back of the Grocery. Lucky the loading door is closed!

Turn 7

Survivors:6             Zombies:4        NPCs: 5

Only the zombies move, with 3 outside loading door attacking door with no result. The zombie on the street moves up to Grocery store parking lot.

Turn 8

Survivors:4             Zombies:1             NPCs:5

Michael shoots prone pistol guy, with 1 miss and 1 hit; with another Knocked Down result. As he was already KD, this shifts to obviously Dead.

Zombies continue to attack loading bay door. It holds. Pity we cann’t take that door to our base. ;)

Again, no zombies generated. This luck can’t last!

Turn 9

Survivors:2             Zombies:5

Sebastian, Lisa, and Kaylee search the front of the store (1 area) while Michael searches storeroom (1 area). Michael gets a roll on the Rare Loot table! Alas, it turns out to be nothing.

Turn 10

Survivors: 6 (6)             Zombies: 6 (5)
Yet ANOTHER Random Event, which turns out as nothing.

Nobody moves!

Turn 11

Survivors:3             Zombies:2

Sebastian (only one) finds 5 units of food. Neither Lisa nor Kaylee find anything.

Turn 12

Survivors:5 (3)             Zombies: 5 (6)
Random Event= nothing

 

Michael takes handgun and 3 units of ammo from the pistol guy. The rest of the group gathers to leave.

Turn 13

Survivors:2             Zombies: 5

The team moves out of the grocery store and back towards the pileup at intersection. They confront that diligent street zombie from the opening of the game. Michael shoots it and gets Knocked Down result.

Turn 14

Survivors: 6 (2)             Zombies: 6 (1)
Random Event is lost child, coming out of the woods at section 4.

Kaylee pops the weasel on K.D. zombie. The zombies at the loading door are drawn by the gunfire and move around store into LOS.

One new zombie is generated, becomes part of the group of 3 from behind the store.

 

 

Turn 15
Survivors:5             Zombies: 3
 
Both Sebastian and Michael fire, while Lisa charges/melees the group of zombies.  except Kaylee who’s over by the wreck killing the car zombie. Michael shoots at zombies 1-2 and Sebastian at zombies 3-4. Michael misses, Sebastian KDs one.

Lisa melees and uses last spare die*. She has 4 successes to 2, then 1 to none.

Also +1 die for impact.

Four Gunshots generate 1 Zombie at KFC

 

-End Part 1 of the Game 5 post. Part 2 soon!

All Things Zombie: Better Final Fade-out than Zed?

Well, after some consideration I've decided to simply add some of the rules of FFO to my ATZ:BDTZ game instead of importing over wholesale. There's just too many new things I'm unsure about. Oh I like the explanation mode of FFO (as I noted in my review) but most of that I've finally figured out from the THW yahoo group and the Board of the Living Lead.

So, I'm importing the FFO campaign rules, Star Power*, Zombie rules, and firearms systems. I'm also going to use the increased attributes and talents. I might add more as play progresses but most everything else in FFO either seems too clunky or apples to oranges; a different way of doing XYZ but not IMO better. At least, it doesn't seem better from a read-thru. I might feel differently in play.

Oh, and Game 5 (last full ATZ:BDTZ) game will be up in about a week with pics and such. No, really! ;)

Zombie Chow