WW2Z - game play aid memoirs

My WW2Z game will be what I term a true skirmish; that is every figure acts as an individual, rather than as part of a unit.

 During a game, each figure will be given orders, and those orders can be different to that of other figures with in the section or platoon.

 Normally when I play my games I write up statistic cards to make it easier to record relevant information for game play. This is good, except for half of the time I forget to use a piece of equipment they carry, or over look a skill that would have saved the figure's life.

To get around these oversights, I am creating some game play aid memoirs.

Basically I have a character card with a photo and handy information that I will need to check during a game.

 I have done this in the past, but always seem to forget something important during the heat of the battle.

 Thus I have taken my initial info card one step further and created equipment and skill cards.

 The idea is that I stack cards representing any equipment or skill the figure has with the character card, and when it comes to the figure's turn to be given orders, I pick the stack up and look through them until I find the relevant piece of information that may be applicable for the order being given.

 Once the figure has been moved I pick up the next figure's stack and so on.

Here are some examples of my aid memoirs:

example 1

Example 1 shows the character card, and at a glance you can see the Rank and Name of the character, the TAC and Morale ratings, weapons and equipment carried, any skills he has, and some basic notes.

 Next to that is a card for the Thompson SMG, showing the range bands and the attack ratings for those ranges.

 The third card is a skill card telling me some important information that is good to remember, but often over looked.

Example 2

 Example 2 has two more equipment cards, again with important information that will come in handy, plus another skill card that is very important to remember during melee.

Example 3

Example 3 includes two grenade cards showing game play information. When the character throws a grenade, I remove a card from his stack, thus eliminating the need to keep records.  The last skill the character has is also in the example, reminding me that the character has a bonus to spot things during play.


 All the examples have been designed for the rules "Arc of Fire", thus most of it would look alien to most readers of my blog, as I am guessing not many of you have the "Arc of Fire" rules.


 The examples are the prototypes at this stage: I intend to alter the formatting a bit, and make them look a whole lot more 'purty' that what they are at the moment.

 During game play I can also add in to a character's card stack wound cards, to remind me to adjust movement or chances to hit, as well as anything else that would normally require some form of record keeping or a jolly good memory.

WW2Z - V1 flyingbomb is here!

Yep, my model V1 arrived today.

 Not the hardest kit I will ever put together - 11 pieces in all. Glad I didn't pay a fortune for it.

  Looking at it, I will be using N gauge railway track for the launch ramp, so I am happy I waited until it arrived before getting any rail.

 The bad thing about it is the ebay shop I purchased the rack from seems to be on holiday, so I wont get the track until mid November. Poo Bugger Bum Snot!

 In the mean time I will make my V1 and start drawing up plans for the ramp and walls for the launcher.

 It looks like I will have to make this in two parts, as I will need more than one of my MDF boards to complete it, but this will allow me to store it a lot easier when not in use.

WW2Z - V1 rocket scenario thoughts

The more I think about the V1 rocket scenario, the more I like it.

 I have been doing a bit of research in to the rockets so that I can make the appropriate scenery to go with it.

I can't start building the launch site yet, as I need to know the size of the V1 rocket I am eagerly waiting.

But, here are some images I have found on the net I am using for ideas:

Diagram of a 'typical' launch site

Walls that protected the launch ramp, which has been removed

V1 on launch partial ramp

Ramp as see from the rear

 Depending on the size of the V1 model, I am thinking of using HO/OO railway track for the top of the ramp itself, with foam card plus embellishments for the body of the ramp.

 I will have a crack at cutting out the struts for the ramp as seen at the front of the ramp on the last photo, but failing that I will 'cheat' and just make a solid support.

 The blast walls I will make with foam card, and I might tackle making buildings 'R', 'Q' & 'K' as shown in the top diagram.

I am hoping I will be able to get away with a shorter ramp and mount it on an A4 sized piece of MDF I have, but failing that I will find a board I can use.

 A lot does depend on the size of the model!

The launch sites also had a bit of variation of how they were built, so I can get away with not being 100% accurate should I need to be flexible.


For a bit of inspiration I found this on you tube:

Zomtober - week 4

Well, it is surprising how fast Zomtober has gone - week four already.

This week I finished my figures off before the weekend, which was a great effort on my behalf if I say so myself.

The flash really sucks on these figures

 This week I painted up six "type "3 zombies and five commandos. 

 I know this weekend is the last for Zomtober 2013, but I am extending Zomtober into next month simply because I only have five more commandos to finish and six more type 3 zombies to finish.

 After I have done those I want to finish off the Type 2 & 1 zombies, but as I wont be  using them for my games right away they are not an immediate priority.


 I have really liked Zomtober for it kept me actively painting, and I might not have done any painting this month if I hadn't joined in the fun.

I liked it so much that I am going to do a challenge for December and put it out there for others to join in... but more on that towards the end of November.

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 WW2Z notes

 Two of the commandos shown above are very important to my game if I am to use the "Arc of Fire" rules.  The sniper has longer range than almost every other Commando due to the others having SMGs, and has an impressive +3 to a d10 dice roll to hit.

 The Bren Gunner not only has very long range with the Bren Gun, but he has the best chance to kill a target than any other Commando in a fire fight.

 These two figures will need to be protected at all costs if the Commandos are to have a good chance at surviving. 

 Due to the high number of SMGs and the Bren Gun used by the Commandos, there will be a lot of chances zombies spawning during a game. Mwhahahahahaahhaa

WW2Z - scenario ideas

I have been thinking of some scenarios for my World War Two Zombie game.

 I have a German Officer with a brief case waiting to be painted up.  The scenario involving him is fairly simple - capture him and return him to Blighty.  Sounds simple, but he could escape before capture, or not actually make it off the table safely.

Artizan's "Major Kriepe"

Once the officer has been interrogated sufficiently he will spill the beans on other people involved in the zombie plot, as well as locations of research bunkers etc.

 This can lead to a mission to capture mad scientists, occult leaders or both.

Artizan's "Dr. Klomp"

 Maybe V1 rockets will be used to deliver a zombie chemical into the allied lines - this would be a fun project to make a launch site, provided I could find a model V1 rocket to the correct scale. I could always use a smaller model (which I can find) and call it a Z1 rocket.

image stolen from another web site to show the 'fun' level of the V1

 I did consider a V2 rocket, but I think the V1 would be more fun for the game.


Then of course there is always the Marquis / Resistance that could be the focus of a few missions - the Commandos have to meet up with them and are then guided to a location of story driving importance.

Artizan's Michelle

 I would love to find a reason for a German U-Boat and crew for the game... maybe they will be carrying something important and need to be stopped before they leave the docks

Brigade Games: the big one is out of my price range, the small one is WW1... research will be done into the use of WW1 u-boats during WW2. Heck - zombies are involved, so I can't see why I couldn't use one.

Do I allow Priests to have an effect on zombies? If so, the Commandos can take one along with them and protect him. Maybe this would work only on the occult created zombies.

Artizan's Priest miniature

More ideas when the spring to mind...

EDIT - Woot! I just found a 1/48 V1 kit selling at a decent price here in Australia!  It should arrive next Wednesday, so I will have to start looking at making a launch ramp once I have built it.

Bolt Action Zombie - Not

As followers of my blog will know, I have been tinkering with the Bolt Action rules to a) play it as a true skirmish game, and b) use this adaptation of the rules to play a zombie game.

The concept only partially works and leaves me thinking I would need to transform the rules so much that it is not worth the effort.

 As I have been cleaning my house up to make room  for a shipping container load of Mrs Shelldrake's items coming from Japan, I have had chance to uncover a number of rules I have played and then put aside as each new shiny thing came along.

 One of these rules is "Arc of Fire".  I re-read the rules and played a few turns using the commandos and zombies to see if the rules will do what I want them to do.

 Now Arc of Fire is not a 1:1 skirmish game: the figures on the table represent individual soldiers, you still move them as a group; thus you control a fire team or a section rather than a single soldier.

 The good thing is that with very little tinkering I can play the game the way I want for my games.

 The great thing is that the rules cover Colonial to Modern settings, so I can use the rules for my Vietnam campaign and other projects if I ever get them finished (like the Rhodesian Bush War for example).

 I also want to work on some game cards to speed up play and have information at hand rather than need opening the book to look information up.  More on this another time.

 So, instead of using the title "Bolt Action Zombie" I now need to come up with a new title for my game setting.



 

Zomtober 2013 week 3

ok, I could have posted these earlier today (like this morning and not in the evening) but I was caught up in a play test for my WWW2 game, and playing a computer game called "Endless Space".

 As you can see, I have painted four zombies and four commandos this week.  I have decided that all the zombies with helmets will represent the nastier type 1 & 2 zombies for my games, with the others being type 3 zombies. 

 This will make it very easy to tell what types they are during a game without the need to think hard or pick up a figure to check the detail on the out.

 I have already made a start on next week's effort - this time I hope to paint six zombies, but I only have five commando in the line up to paint, leaving me with only three commandos to paint up to have the lot finished.

Edit - it appears I have five more commandos to paint up... two more were hiding in amongst Vietnamese villagers.

Zomtober week 2

Here are my results from week two of Zomtober (still not sure on the name - some call it Zomtober, and others Zombtober...):

This week I painted up two more commandos, a Nazi zombie and a type three German zombie.

I hope to do three or four of each for next week's efforts.

Zomtober 2013 - Week 1

Being a Sunday, it is time to post my first photo for the work I have done for Zomtober 2013.

I painted up two WW2 Commandos (who are filling the role of survivors) and one Nazi zombie.

I still can't get over how shiny the matt varnish is I use.

 As you can tell I only paint to get figures on the table, and not as master pieces.

 The angle of the face on the zombie makes it hard to see his red eyes, but that should be easier to make out on the zombies I have to follow this photo.

 The arm band on the zombie is not what you are thinking it is either.  I created my own arm band, and the symbol on it is different to normal.  I will reveal more about this in future posts as I am including it with the back story for my game setting.