LDZA: spring supplies run

[Reprinted from Facebook, which is where most gaming chat is going on these days. In fact, if it were not for it being the place for gaming chat, I likely would have left FB a while ago.]

Moving into action, to scoop up some much needed supplies from a washed-out road.

Got in my first solo game of LD:ZA this week. I had rolled up the crew randomly in Chaos Theory back in January, and finally got enough painted up to get on the table.

I rolled three Selfish characters, and two dogs (plus a random Outdoorswoman) so I knew noise would be an issue. But I underestimated how much those triggerhappy fools would complicate matters. The weather started at a heavy rain, limiting line of sight. But once Terry, the merciless leader, got towards the center, he kept firing at the incoming horde, which kept drawing roaming zombies into the back line. I tried to keep the hounds to one side, to limit their noise, but they strayed too close to that board edge as well, which kept them busy keeping other roamers at bay. Manny, Terry's goon sidekick, tried to hold off the new arrivals, but eventually got overwhelmed when he was forced to back into a wreck. Within five turns, discretion turned into the better part of valor, and the crew split up and left different table edges carrying three supplies. Manny made a full recovery... or so it seems.

Gwen the Outdoorswoman with her heavy scythe lines up her swing (it would not prove effective.)

Manny the Goon is forced back from melee, but directly away, pushing his back against the literal wall.

Terry, the Merciless Thug leader of the group, eyes the oncoming horde through the rain.

The game ran smoothly! Most questions were easy to look up, and while I have a few outstanding issues (are Heavy weapons... just not worth it?) I adore the random character generation for solo games. It not only helps define how they act for solo gaming, but also knowing it's a heroic but self-pitying goon, or a competitive dog, just adds a lot to the story.

Zombicide: Black Plague wave 2 is here

This just showed up on my doorstep. Luckily I happened to be home, because it's certainly warm out here in Maryland today.

Yeah, I bought big. The sculpts are great, and useful for so many games.

But man, with this here and Massive Darkness starting soon, I really, really need to come up with a better storage solution, before my wife kills me (and no jury would convict her.) (She fully supports my gaming habits, but does her best to help me keep my pack rat nature in check. And the gaming area was already overflowing.)

Oh, and it's been a fortnight since the last update. In that time, I think I played all of two games of Frostgrave, and three games of Guild Ball campaign. And kept meaning to post here, but would get a couple paragraphs in before I was boring myself. So, yeah, still struggling with that. But! Gaming! People are talking about Bushido again, and we have a standing offer for This is Not a Test whenever I can starting making it up there. Plus a Pulp City day in the near future. Many opportunities for which I need to make time.

Zomtober '15, week 4: the fourth horseman

My name is death, and the end is here...

The finale! Zombicide season three introduced the skinner zombies, emaciated and tough as nails and all creepy-like. This charmed caught my eye as soon as I opened the box.

I wanted to keep the skin tones pale and go for an old and faded look to the whole scheme. Definitely an end-times affair.

Team height comparison

The Zomtober graduating class of 2015

Thanks to all the great words of encouragement out there! I honestly do look forward to Zomtober, and it always helps kick my gaming juices right where it counts. Next month I hope to get my Guild Ball team fully table-ready, so I don't feel like a loser posting pics of half-painted toys all the time.

Zomtober '15, week 3: scaley!

One of the staples of the modern zombie genre is mutant zombies, undead affected in such a way that gives them a different look or powers. The Zombicide expansion Prison Outbreak featured berserker zombies, undead affected by reasons unknown to have scaly plates that give them some degree of armor from ranged weapons. Their jaws also get a little chisled, as it were. And whatever occurred happened near a prison, meaning the berserker zeds are all prisoners and prison guards (which gives the minis a nice unified theme.)

The only way I find mold lines is well after priming.

I painted the prison uniform orange to match my Arkham escaped convicts, because why not.

Not much time to chat today, this weekend's packed. But had to check in here first!

The story so far.

He's not overly tall...

Zomtober '15, week 2: Parker and his trusty machete

"I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is."

This week's entry could be a companion piece to last week's Santa Zed, but honestly, it's just another fig I've been putting off for a while, and this was the week to get it done. Parker is a zombie survivor, from Hasslefree.

I've seen pics online of folks painting him like Kenny from South Park, but I took more inspiration from John Carpenter's The Thing an Han Solo in his Hoth gear.

Look, a better pic of Santa Zed.

And he is tiny. Like, 22mm from feet to the top of the hood. Which works great for me. I loved Crooked Dice's St. Searle's 'savage schoolgirls' line, which I've supplemented with other armed children from vaious manufacturers. Parker is a natural fit, even if a little warmly dressed for it. I doubt many zombies will bite through that parka, though!

Slightly better job with the lighting this week. This was done outside, however, which also makes it rather weather-and-time dependent.

The lighting came out all weird with this one, but it was too good a height comparison to let it go. So I tried to edit it up in gimp, and... made it worse to the point that I couldn't un-blue it in the right way. But still! (And man, there's no better way to find every little missed detail than take some nice digital pics and edit them up. Every tiny error just shines right through.) (Thank heavens I am not a perfectionist.) (As you may have guessed.)

Zomtober '15, week 1: a nightmare before Zed-mas

It's the most wonderful time of the year - Zomtober! Third year in a row for me, and always a welcome reminder to get things painted.

For my first entry, I confess I'd been looking forward to painting the Zombicide season three VIP, Santa Zed! Also the first fig I've fully painted at my new place.

It's also the first fig I've taken pictures of at the new house, so as you can tell I need to figure out my ad-hoc lighting setup a little better. But still. Happy Zombtober all!

Obligatory comparison shot with Crooked Dice all-star Misty.

7ombieTV: Break Down

This week on Zed Nation...

Couple weeks back, the gents expressed interest in 7ombieTV (which I have been stumping for a while) so I threw together some models and we sat down to play the first scenario, "Break Down." We'd played a run through of 7tv a while back, so I re-familiarized myself by fixing up a nice playsheet and generating the Co-Stars.

There and back again 

The survivors' microbus had run out of gas within sight of their goal: a gas station they new still held the precious fuel they would need to break away from the swarm of undead infesting the area. All they needed to do was run out there, grab the gas, and get back to the vehicle before the zombie horde sinks their teeth into them.

Each player had two Co-Stars (the Brain, the Grease Monkey, the Looker, and the Grunt) and two extras (one was a faithful Dog.) I ran the zombies, more or less on auto-pilot. I snuck in two Leader zombies, but didn't reveal that until it was time for them to use their extra activation abilities. I also brought one zombie dog, to be the nemesis of his canine counterpart. (Both dogs turned out to be surprisingly effective.) For an extra worry, I made the survivors keep track of who had the car keys. You know, just in case.

"It has been established that persons who have recently died have been returning to life and committing acts of murder."

Top of the pic, you see the Zombie Dog racing to give the Brain a taste of what's to come.

Top left corner, you'll see what happens when a handful of zombies gets hit with a Molotov event card. Smokin'!

The Brain runs back with the gas, with a Zombie Dog nipping at his heels. 

Civilian down!

Living dog > not-so-living dog.

Surrounded, the Brain plays a timely "Walk Like A Zombie" event card, letting him escape the undead predators for a crucial round.

The Grunt (played by Rick from Zombicide, painted by Maurice) faces a grim fate.

The Grease Monkey swings his axe to free the Brain from a wall of undead. 

Working to keep the escape route clear.

Things are looking grim back at the van. 

Bloodbath! 

On the ninth turn, the survivors pile into the refueled van and make tracks, securing a solid victory for the living. This time.

Decently successful game. Some rules questions cropped up (where are those rules from breaking away from melee?) and some mistakes were made in the beginning on both sides, but nothing crucial. The guys seemed to enjoy themselves, which is all that matters, to the point that I am discussing running 7th Voyage in the near future.

Fall-In 2014: day two: Zombie Apocalypse!

Saturday morning rolls around, and for whatever reason we all wake up early. Good news because that means a leisurely breakfast at IHOP with a surprise appearance by a hostess with the magical gift of oversharing early in the a.m.

As noted in the Friday report, I did pretty well at Wally's Basement, so let's talk shopping at the con. I never know how much my dozens of readers really care about what someone else is buying. I mean, maybe? So let's hit the big topics instead.

Definitely fewer booths in the dealer's hall than before. I mean, I still found things to spend money on (thanks Brigade and Recreational Conflict!) but there wasn't a lot of competition.

Perfect!

I have a few big Kickstarter rewards showing up in the next few months, so as for strategies for spending my money I stuck mostly to things to supplement games/genres I already have. Better to add more terrain or figs or whatever, to keep me focused. So more Victorian scifi (Wolsung, IHMN) and modern (Pulp City, Gotham.) Was happy to see Brigade had some of the Midnight Workshop figs from Artizan, in addition to their Empire of the Dead offerings.

I didn't pick these up, but it's an inspirational concept.

I should also note that the one big purchase I made at Wally's was a handful of Skaard figs for Dark Age. Older models, but lovely, and priced so I couldn't refuse. Second army started!

And now my big Saturday event. I'd seen them run  games like this before, but this was the first time I was able to reserve a seat at the table.

From the description:

S160 Hold the Line - Z+60 Days
Sat 3:00:00 PM, 3 hrs, 6 players
GM: Henry Kyle
Period: Modern, Scale: 25mm, Rules: Zombie Apocalypse (Home Brew)
"Sixty days after the dead began to rise, your small Texas town is in danger of being overrun by the walking dead. Luckily, word has reached you of a safe zone a few counties over. As the non- combatants are loaded into a convoy to be taken to safety, it is up to the town's ragtag defenders to hold back the undead horde long enough for them to flee."

Yes, those are all 28mm figs.

Arriving at the table, it's a hell of an impressive layout.

The plotline is: we're some of the remaining citizens of Arlen, TX. The city is surrounded by a massive horde of the undead, and we're the defenders gathered on the south side of town, trying to hold off the zombies until a convoy of non-combatants can get moving (in eight turns.)

(They specified the southside of town, as previous runnings of this scenario have been the one of the other three sides of town. Clever!)

Suffice it to say, our work is cut out for us.

The rough outline. The deck of cards was massive, with many options played in different phases of the turn.

The rules are straightforward and fast. Within a turn, we had all the basics down, and we only had to ask for specific rules or 'creative' ideas. Initiative was by cards, worked wonderfully for the ten or so players they had. Victory points were earned for killing zombies (and other things) and points were lost when zombies began attacking the convoy (and a couple other things, I think.) Yes, this means we're encouraged to screw over the other players. Each turn each player got a random event card. Which helped them out or hurt opponents.

No, they don't have these rules available yet. Yes, when they do, I will be picking them up without hesitation.

My crew of ne'er-do-wells.

When I arrived, I had my choice of which themed crew I wanted to play. I went with the Dirty 1/3rd of a Dozen, four hardened criminals who didn't care so much about saving the town as saving our own hides. We didn't lose points for walkers getting to the convoy; this was instrumental to my strategy.

Other factions included: the local donut-eating cops, the local gun club, the A Team, the Sons of Arlen Motorcycle Club, the heavily-armed strippers, some Blackwater mercenaries, and many more. Each had their own little advantages and characteristics. Great to sit down to that kind of variety.

See that light blue police car in the middle of the barricades?

Turn one starts, we start taking shots into the undead crowd, and a few zombies get over the cars. The local cops, who have found some dynamite (via their random event card,) toss it into the horde. It bounces back a bit, and takes out... the police car in the middle of the barricades. This is bad.

My crew spots an ambulance nearby. Curiously enough, we have the rules on our card for how to hotwire a vehicle. We're stationed next to the A Team, so we take some shots at the zombies with them while falling back to our new ride.

Couple turns pass, and the barricade is now more of a speed bump. Zombies are streaming through the breach. Thanks to those random event cards, other zombies have popped up from buildings in town, from the sewers, and from one of the table edges. Eek.

My posse has jacked the ambulance and is heading to the road west. We can't get offboard until turn five, at which point we get VPs for saving our own necks. I did mention we weren't nice guys, right?

I should say most of my posse. Jefferson was tied up in hand to hand combat with one of the walkers that got through, and when he was able to break free, thanks to some help from the A Team... his buddies had driven off. No honor among thieves!

Seriously, it was a firefight!

My ride makes it to the edge of town, but needs to wait a couple turns until we can slip off. We pick off any walkers that are near us. Other townies are suspicious of my motives, but don't know what exactly I am up to. Other than, you know, running away. Snee hee hee.

LOOK AT THAT. So cinematic.

Thanks to someone else's random event card, a zombie breaks into the ambulance, and attacks us. After a turn or two, I go from three criminals fighting one zombie to one criminal fighting two other zombies, including the driver.

Remember Jefferson? Inexplicably still breathing, he sees the writing on the wall, and is sticking like glue to the other survivors, falling back to the convoy.  

I could write three more blog posts about everything else that happened in this game. Walkers ambushing survivors, one-in-a-million shots, terrible turns of the tide. One of the things that went really well for a con game is that each player had their own characters, and thusly their own story in this larger event, enhanced by their own cards and cards others played on or around them. Highly effective, and a real plus for the folks behind this game.

Posey, the lone surviving criminal from the ambulance, gets out, gets in another ambulance they randomly ended up packing next to, and uses that to secure his escape and me a fair number of victory points. (As bad guys, we didn't care about fallen comrades.)

Oh, and Jefferson, the luckiest bad boy in town, makes it out to the convoy at the end and off the table. Victory points are tallied. I come in second, after... another bad guy player who didn't care about the convoy getting attacked. Having zeds pop up so early, before we could muster a rearguard to keep them off the civilians cost a lot of points from the good guys, which really gave us criminal types an advantage. But I speak without fear of contradiction when I say that everyone had fun.

Huge game. Great times.

After that epic battle, we headed out of town early. Swung by Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie, since it was on the way and I'd never been before. Believe the hype, it's pretty close to the ideal game store. Clean, well-lit, well-stocked. Plenty of space for gaming. The downside is... that's it's too far from my house. Ah well.