Campaign Game 3 - On the Road: part 2 Batrep

The survivors move forward, wary of the fact there are not many zombies around.

[I rolled using the zombie threat level for the game and only 3 zombies were placed at the start of the game]

The survivors move cautiously forward

The zombies, some how sensing live flesh is nearby move forward for a feed.

 As Jack and Celina chew up some ground and make it up on to the top of the bus. Ned hesitates as four more zombies appear.

Jack and Celina breath a bit easier.

Even zombies like ice cream!

Three more zombies appear - somehow they know there is flesh to be eaten.

Jack, knowing what it is like to be cornered wastes not time and makes his way up the truck and across the top of the trailer.

 While Ned climbs onto the top of a car, Celina joins Jack on the truck.

The higher they are, the safer they feel

Jack moves to the end of the trailer, but Celina stays put – that way she will be in range of Ned should he need some ballistic assistance.

 [Random even allows Celina to buy a new skill at ½ cost after the game… provided she lives.]

Why is the back of the truck open? What was in there?

Jack jumps onto the icecream truck, while Ned makes it on to the front of the truck just as zombies appear behind him and to the his flanks. 

Hurry up Ned!

While waiting for ned to catch up both Jack and Celina wait for him to catch up as the zombies start to form hoards around the truck.

Will Ned make the jump across to the trailer?

[My rolls for zombie spawning is not so great – most of them are turning up at the end of the truck… right where the Survivors need to exit the table.]

Ned tries to jump from the cab to the trailer but falls between the two. There is no way he will be able to climb up on to the back of the truck safely, so he will have to bolt on foot and try to get out if he can.

Celina dashes across and successfully jumps onto the ice cream truck.

Not wasting time, Ned sprints along the side of the truck hoping to make it to the exit point.

Jack fires into the mass below him, taking out a zombie.

Nope, he wont make it

This is our ice cream - get your own!

 The zombie dying to zombie appearing ratio picks up a bit as Jack and Celina drop eight between them, and Ned takes down one.

Ned gets to the end of the truck and halts… there is a zombie to the rear of the ice cream truck - can he get past it?

Run Ned, Run!

Jack thinks he sees a zombie that used to be someone he knew. He takes a guts check and passes, deciding it wasn't any one important if he did know them. 

[Random event had a survivor make a gut check thinking they saw a zombie they used to know before the apocalypse]

 The zombie lurking behind the ice cream truck rushes at Ned and a furious combat begins. Ned lands a couple ineffective hits before the shock and pain of numerous bites drops him to the ground and he comes zombie food.

Look out!

[After a lot of shooting last turn I have a record dice grave of 24 dice. My luck changes a bit as only 6 zombies are spawned from this lot]

Jack and Celina continue to fire away at the zombies blocking their escape route.

The red counters indicate how many turns Ned will be chomped on

[Seven zombies are spawned this turn but most appear on the far end of the table]

Jack and Celina kill two zombies each, clearing a way to safety. Jack jumps down ready to make good his escape.

Jack doesn't bother to get himself an ice cream

 Just when he thought the nightmare would end, a zombie appears right in the path Jack has to take to get away. 

 Fortunately Jack gets to move before the zombies do and puts two rounds into the new zombie's head.

With escape so close Jack runs for his life, with Celina moving to join him on the road.

As she gets off the roof, Celina notices a bag next to the car with some molotov cocktails sticking out of the top

[This was a random even, and a most welcome one indeed!]

  

So close... can Celina make it to safety?

Picking up the bag Celina catches up to Jack and both make it to safety.... for now.

The zombies at the end of the game

Once in a safe area Celina opens the bag and find a pamphlet that must have been placed there by the original owner when they were fleeing. It says that there is a pick up point in the city where survivors can be rescued and be taken to a safe haven. It also suggests that the CDC has a vaccine for the zombie virus, and that all major cities have an immunization point that people can head to.

[These two were rumor events that happened during the game and I used the molotov bag to tie it into the story]

So ends game three in my campaign.

Ned was eaten - so now I am down to two survivors. Again I am not that upset at loosing Ned, as he was only intended as a fill in survivor for my first game.

 Now that I have my Hasslefree Miniatures I can add new survivors to the game, but I would not be so casual about it should they be eaten.

 The choke points I made using the cars was useful... it stopped the zombies moving freely in a direct path, thus slowing them down a bit.

 If it wasn't for this, I am sure Celina and maybe even Jack would not have survived the game.

The events worked well and I will add extra events into the deck so new survivors can appear.

In my next games I will use the initiative deck they way it is used in 'The Rules With No Name' and allow a character to hold back their action until they want to use it or when the turn ends.

Had I done this, I think Celina and Jack would have been able to protect Ned from the zombies near the escape point.  

 My next game will be a "supply run" scenario, simply because the survivors need to eat, and they have eaten the supplies they were carrying.

I have a new road that I am making for future games and I will have to make a few buildings too. Between this and work it may be a few weeks before I get to play my next game, but I have something in mind to fill in the gaps between games that I will post.

Campaign Game 3 - On the road: part 1, the set up

"I'm gonna tell you about an incident, and I don't wanna hear 'act of God!'  
My name is Jack Berton. I'm a reasonable guy. But, I've just experienced some very unreasonable things. 
Take for example the other day - we were chased by zombies and just managed to escape in a car by a hair's width, only to have it run out of fuel on the highway."

"We had to make it down the road, dodging zombies as we went, and it was going to take crackerjack timing.
 Celina pulled out those hand cannons of hers and turned to me and asked if I was ready. Ha. I was born ready!"

This is the setup for my next game. I would like a few more cars, but it doesn't bother me that much.

 The game only has the three survivors in it, and as such I am reducing the number of zombies that appear in the rule book for this scenario to reflect the lower point value used.

 I also placed the vehicles in a convenient way - provided the survivors can climb on top of the vehicles I have given them a bit of a risen path way to the other end by using the bus and the truck to walk along.  Now they just have to get up there and get down again.

I will be playing this game over the weekend, and hopefully get a battle report up soon after.

My Zombie Campaign - what I want to do with it and where it is headed

I just thought I would take the time to ramble on about my zombie campaign and what the game objectives are.


The primary objective is simple - to have the characters survive. Seems fairly simple, but the zombies want to throw a spanner into the works.


The next important goal is to find a safe location to hole up and use as a base of operations.


 Going hand in hand with objectives one and two are collecting supplies to ensure survival - the three f's: Food, Fuel and Firearms.


With this 'under control' my survivors will begin the next phase - finding other survivors, find out what happened, and establish a colony to ensure the continuation of survival.


As part of the last one, I will have rumors in the game about safe havens, why the zombie apocalypse occurred, and even a chance to find a cure.


 Each time a survivor is found I will make a roll on an 'occupation' table to see what skills, if any, these survivors will bring to the colony. Tradesmen and health practitioners will be in high demand, but so are workers to help protect the colony and act as laborers. 

 Of course tradies and doctors are not the only skills on offer but I need to come up with a good list of skills to see what I can do for my fledgling colony.  Military and Emergency services are also very useful.


On a game side of things, I will need to make up a lot of scenery, but once that has been done I should have to spend less time on buildings etc and a lot more time playing the game.


 It might be ambitious, but I want to make part of a housing estate for suburb settings (as well as shops to go with them) and a city block or two for bigger scenarios.


 To this end I will need to make a list of useful shop types and the useful things that can be scavenged from within them. This is intended to help the survivors build their colony.


 Things like tools, clothes, power sources, food, medical supplies and so on will all need to be considered, as will the chance of other looters having already taken useful items.


Obviously not all of these things will happen at once, but I will build up to it and see where it all goes.

Campaign Game 2 - Rescuing Jack part 3

Turn 9

 Johns previous gun fire has attracted 3 more zombies to his “little party”

John,  fires his smg into the group, hitting two, but causing no damage. To make it worse for him, he needs to reload!

Celina heads towards the car where jack is.

John swings wildly with his smg club at the zombies but misses.

Jack gets the car to kick over, but it doesn’t start

Ned dashes after Celina, leaving the "loads" to catch up.

Jack still cant get the car started as Celina screams at him to get his act together.

The zombies "slush" (shamble rush) over the gate and after the fleeing survivors.

John somehow survives a deluge of blows and doesn’t get any further injuries

Celina makes into into the neighbours yard and takes up a firing position behind the wall

Turn 10

6 zombies appear over the far side of the action…[phew]

Celina goes on over watch to protect the loads incase the zombies get too close.

Ned catches up with Celina and takes up position behind the gate, while Jack fires the car into life [Finally!]

The loads get ever closer to the neighbours place, but are taking their time.

The zombies take down john and begin to feast on him, while those zombies at the farm house make short work of the small gate blocking their way.

Not wanting to slow their escape, Jack and Celina get into the car.

Turn 11

Two more zombies appear on the other side of the log cabin [they should be too far from the action to worry me]

Jack moves the car forward, knocking the gate down and waits for the others to get in, and Ned, not needing a second invitation, scrambles into the back seat

Not sure is they are seeing things, the survivors think they see a different type of zombie in the hoards around them that somehow act differently  [Event card that was drawn]

The zombies finish eating john and look for their next meal...

Turn 12

Three more zombies appear at the far side of the action, this time on the far side of the farm house.

Jack frantically honks the horn while Celina and ned yell for the loads to hurry up.

Unfortunately the shock of seeing the zombies eat john must have frozen them to the spot, for the hoard is upon them!

Turn 13

With more zombies appearing close to the crate tower, the hoard of zombies start tearing into the "loads".

  

Those in the car are stunned, unable to do anything as the watch the zombies attack the "loads".  [The turn ended before they were able to act]

Turn 14

The zombies finish eating as others move forward to join in the eating frenzy.

 [This was another short turn, which was very frustrating for me at this point... would the turn of the cards mean the difference between my survivors living or dying?]

Turn 15

The zombies, making a short meal of their latest victims, start to swarm towards the car.

Ned throws a cocktail out the window in the hopes of clearing some away – one dies and two flame up.

Turn 16

Bouyed by his success, Ned throws another cocktail, taking out two more,and setting another two on fire. This helps keep the pressure off a fraction.

Jack finally wake out of his stupor and speeds out of the front yard and out of immediate danger, leaving the moaning hoard gnashing their teeth at them in the rear view mirror.

 Game ends.

After Action Review:

 If I was to play this one again, I would have not moved John so close to a spawn point. I also forgot to use his Molotov Cocktails. Had I done so, I think he would have survived.

 Having said that, I am not too upset with his loss, as the figure is one of the "Government Agents" I have, and I will be needing them in future games. I just hope my Hasslefree order can turn up soon! I really need those figures to add to my character pool.

 The zombies were lucky with the draw of the cards for a few turns. If I hadn't decided to have a few characters run when they did I probably would have lost all of my characters.

 The Molotov Cocktails worked a treat - I limited the number of dice to roll for effect to 10d10, but only used that many once in the game. It is well worth having some of these on hand.

 Regretfully I only have one cocktail left for the next game, so I had better make good use of it.

 The next game will be "On the Road" - I made a nice road section just for this scenario, and I will show it in a post tomorrow. I would like a few more cars before I start this game: two more cars showed up in the mail today making a grand total of five cars and one bus.

  A few trucks would be very helpful, as they offer some height away from the zombies.

Campaign Game 2 - Rescuing Jack Part 2

Turn 3

The zombies move, and more take up the interest in Celina behind the wall and start to move towards the gate.

[Turn ends on the first card drawn, which means only the zombies were able to move]

Turn 4

John heads out of the farm towards the neighbours place, but hesitates once he clears the gate and wonders if he is doing the right thing.  [I drew an event card that caused him indecision, thus loosing a move]

  

The zombes move towards the gate and Jack stands on top of his tower and pretends he isn’t there.

Celina sees red and takes out 4 zombies with her .45 socom pistols.

Turn 5

 The shooting has started to attract more zombies, which appear behind the main hoard of zombies, which in turn moan forward and start to claw at the farm yard gate.

Celina throws her second last cocktail over the fence near the gate and six more zombies catch on fire and she drops three instantly.

Unable to crash through the barrier, the zombies on fire turn to ash.

Turn 6

3 more zombies appear drawn by the noise of the battle.

John heads towards the scrub hoping not to attract the zombies' attention in any way, and he makes it into some scenic cover.

The zombies shuffle forward, filling the gaps of their fallen.

Celina throws the last of her cocktails with devastating effect: 8 zombies catch on fire.

Ned makes him self busy grabbing essential items from his house grabs ammo for his assault rifle, not really caring about the battle out side, or the plight of his cousin Jack.

The loads take one look behind them and move after John.

Turn 7

The easing up of gun fire has summoned fewer zombies (1 this time) but they are all appearing near Jack, making him very uneasy, but as they shamble past, he sees a gap forming that he might be able to escape through

The zombies start to move the gate in its foundations, making it very shaky.

[Another short turn  due to the turn of the cards]

Turn 8

As John blunders about in the undergrowth, three zombies appear right next to him!

The loads make a dash for the neighbour’s house in an attempt to get to the car

Jack steadies his nerves [passed a gut check rolling a 2] and sprints towards the neighbour’s place, taking advantage of the gap in the zombies.

Ned stopps messing around in the house and comes out into the yard.

John fires a burst at the zombies near him, but shoots low, the bullets ripping into the chests of the flesh eaters.

Getting unnerved, John runs towards the neighbours house, but the zombies lunge at him slowing him down, but inflict no damage.

The zombie numbers at the farm build up on the gate and they push it over.

The three zombies near John converge around him with their teeth nashing. John holds his nerve and fights back, but misses out on killing one.

 The three dead heads converge on him and one bites John

Jack hurdles the fence and rushes to the car [note - I was thinking like an Aussie and had the steering on the wrong side when I parked the car!]

Celina wastes no time and runs and jumps over the wall to the rear of the farm and Ned quickly follows.

Celina catches up to the loads and puts herself between them and the zombies attacking John.

Jack gets in and attempts to hotwire the car, but is under a bit of pressure and fails.

To be continued....

Campaign Game 2 - Rescuing Jack part 1

I played my second game today, and it was a good one - full of tension and suspense.

Set Up - as shown in the photo:

 I moved the scenery sideways and added more scenery in the spaces made vacant. This allowed me to add a "neighbour"  to game.

 Jack was on top of his crates and the others were at the entrance to the tunnel located in the log cabin.

 I gave those in the cabin some molotov cocktails made from the fuel found in the first game that a quick "MacGyver" was done on. I gave 4 each to Celina and John and 3 to Ned.

 The Zombie Threat Level was set at 4, and I decided that new zombies would only start appearing after four turns; mainly to give me time to kill some off to allow for the "zombie pool" to grow.

Turn 1

Ned leads the way into the tunnel and comes up in the shed, finding a first aid kit stashed in a trunk.

The "loads" follow Ned along the tunnel and into the shed

Entering the shed behind them, Celina quickly exits the shed and checks to see if the coast is clear

Ned comes out besid her offering some covering fire if needed.

Taking stock of the situation, Celina decides to wait for the others to come out of the tunnel before doing anything.

Jack starts firing into the mass of zombies killing two of them.

The zombies around jack move and fill the gaps of the fallen.

Turn 2

Ned moves across to the house – he is sure he left something good in there and wants to look for it.

Jack takes down two more zombies, following up with another burst that takes out two more before his smg runs out of ammo. (doh!!!! No more ammo for jack!)

Ned unlocks the door to his house and immediately goes for the gun rack where he collects two units of ammo (lucky dice rolls here).

John comes out of the tunnel and leaves the shed, taking up position to protect the "loads" when they exit the shed..

Seeing Jack is in trouble Celina moves forward to give a hand by throwing a cocktail at the zombies. Five of the zombies are set on fire – three collapse immediately while two others flame for a little while.

Amid the turmoil the loads exit the shed, feeling reassured by the presence of John.

 Celina throws another of the cocktails setting six more on fire, one of which turns to ash.

The zombies, seeing an easier target than jack shamble towards Celina, who is protected by the wall. Those zombies that were on fire turn to ash as they near her.

(this turn was the first time all cards were used in a turn)

To be continued...

Campaign Game 1 - The First Night part 3

Despite all the zombies surrounding him, Jack regains a bit of colour.

A bit blurry, but a photo of Jack back in place once painted

Both John Walker and Celina Croise search the last areas of the cabin and come up trumps: John finds two lots of food supplies, and Celina finds two fuel cans.

Jack fires into the zombies killing two of them.

Behind the cabin, one of the zombies starts to pound on the back door, while other zombies else where shamble towards their chosen targets.

 Celina gets into business mode and delivers head shots to four zombies near the cabin, averting the immediate threat they posed.

 Jack, while in a bad situation, is rather calm and composed knowing the dead can not climb up to get him. Taking advantage of the situation he fires killing another zombie.

All the shots fired are starting to attract a bit of unwanted attention.

 Figuring he is in for a penny in for a pound Jack shoots another zombie. At least it is one less to eat him.

 All the shots fired previously by Celina are starting to attract a bit of attention as well:

 Years of weapon handling experience allows Celina to take out all but one zombie nearing the cabin door.

 Jack starts to get his mojo working and 'slots' another two zombies.

 The gun fire has attracted the largest number of zombies so far - 12 turn up in two different areas near the back of the farm house.
 This is fortunate for those in the cabin, but not so rosy for Jack.

Celina goes a bit lighter on the trigger and only fires enough rounds to kill the zombie at the door. The rear of the cabin is now out of immediate danger.

As I have technically won the scenario I decide to end the game here. I had to either get the survivors into the car behind the farm shed and off the table, or secure the cabin, which I did.

 According the the NMRIH rule book, the next scenario I need to roll on a chart to determine what the next scenario is.

 Rather than do this, I intend to play the "Save the..." mission and have Celina and Co. rescue Jack from the boxes.

 I was lucky with one of the finds in the cabin - I found a tunnel, and a scatter dice I rolled to see it's direction took it to the shed at the farm, and it was within the allowable range for the tunnel. This was purely random and unintentional.

 With this in mind, I intend to start a new game with the zombies in place around Jack and the others coming out of the shed.

Game Talk:

                 I used my initiative card system for this game and it worked well. The 'shot callers' usually had at least one or two actions per turn, and the lesser beings not so many actions which, I feel, reflects their lack of training for such situations. If you can train for the zombie apocalypse that is.

 For zombie spawning I only started using the method described here for the turns on this page. It worked well, and to compensate for the fact zombies wont appear all over the table they do appear in small hoards, which is to their benefit when it comes to barricades as well as making them a bit nastier.

 As it happened, all but one group of zombies spawned near Jack and not near the cabin. This would have allowed those in the cabin to flee the table, but it would have meant not winning the scenario.

 Despite it being hard to kill zombies in the game (well, based on the dice rolls I was having) with thoughtful placing of scenery you can survive a lot of zombies on the table provided you can keep the zombies out of hands melee.

You do need a lot of zombies to play NMRIH, but that should be the same for any zombie game worth its salt.

 What I do need is some unarmed 'sheeple' for the game. At the moment I have two sheeple I found in the cabin, so I need to come up with some figures for them.  I think I have a paper boy from the Pulp Figures range somewhere that I can use for the kid I found, and I hope I have a figure for the woman that was hiding in the cupboard.

 The fuel and the safari rifle I found will be very handy for the next scenario.