Zombie RV - Into the Compound!

    Jackie, left, eludes mobs of zombies by skirting a muddy area, which would slow them down

It was time to give the Zombie RV rules from Grey Area Games another try. Our survivor's first foray onto the zombie-infested streets had been less than successful. We had lost Mophius and picked up only a couple supplies before being forced to flee (see "First Playtest of Zombie RV"). Now that we knew the system and what to expect, surely this outing would go better for Jackie and the boys? 

    Woody (near his noise marker) is first out of the van and quickly opens up one of the quonset huts

I picked one of the scenarios from the basic rules, "Into the Compound." I used my quonset huts and barbed wire fences to create the compound, which had been meant to keep people safe. From the looks of the zombies roaming the interior, though, it was clear that idea had failed as spectacularly as our last mission! We had picked up a new survivor named Quon. When he told Jackie and the crew he was a good shot with a pistol, Woody handed him the pistol he'd scavenged last game. "After what happened to Mophius, I don't trust the damn things!" He hefted his crowbar. "This hasn't failed me yet...!"

    At the other quonset hut, Coop forces open the door, releasing a zombie which shambles towards him

For Quon, I chose "Shooter" and "Sprinter" as his two skills. I figured being a little quicker on the tabletop might come in handy when you're trying to track down resource markers and outrun zombies. I didn't quite realize how key "Springer" would be to the survival of the crew this game! In short, Quon more than proved his worthiness and was doubtless the star of the game.

    More zombies emerge from Woody's hut to shamble towards he and Quon

We pulled through the open gate in our van, and slowly braked to a stop in front of the main part of the compound. We were braving this zombie-infested military compound in the hopes of finding some weapons and spare ammo. All of our firearms were running low, which didn't seem to be a problem with numbers of zombies. Jackie made a quiet, chopping motion and whispered, "Let's go. Quietly, if possible..."

    3 more zombies spawn in the center of the compound while those wandering shamble forward

Woody was the first out of the van and sprinted towards the closest quonset hut on the left. The door appeared to be jammed, but he passed his Might check and was able to force it open. Seeing the shambling movement within and the hearing the moaning of the zombies, he backed out of the doorway so he wouldn't block his teammates' line of fire. Meanwhile, Jackie slipped noiselessly out of the driver's seat and crept quickly and quietly towards the quonset hut on the right. She fiddled with the door, but it appeared locked. Throwing her shoulder into it had no effect. As always, Coop was at her side and whispered, "Let me try..." The door ground open noisily. A quick scan showed what appeared to be only one zombie lingering near what looked like a crate of ammunition. Coop also backed away, as Woody had done.

    Quon quickly proves his usefulness, splattering the two zombies in the hut with head shots

The sequence of play for Zombie RV has the survivors move, one by one, in whatever order the players choose. Next, the zombies move and attack, if in contact. Finally, noise markers are removed (survivors get them for moving, shooting, melee, etc.), and a roll is made to "spawn" more zombies -- typically in the center of the table. I had placed the center long quonset hut so it's doorway was at the spawn point, so new zombies were emerging from it. That seemed to make the most sense. Our goal would be to collect supplies from each of the four smaller huts (and a key to the larger one), and then enter it and collect any weapons or ammo we found. Would we be able to get supplies from all four AND survive entering a building whose entrance was the spawn point?? We would see...

    More zombies close in, most heading towards Quon as his two pistol shots made the most noise

Woody and Coop's backing off tactics worked. The zombies spent both of their actions moving into contact. On the next turn, Quon splattered both of their zombies with head shots from the pistol, and Coop crushed his zombie's skull with his rifle butt. Woody then dashed in and as my "Prepper," was quickly able to find some supplies -- a cache of food which he tossed in his backpack.  Jackie also darted in, but had to search around a bit before finding some ammunition on the next turn. Meanwhile, the newly-spawned zombies and those wandering the compound began to close in. Even though they move only 3" per action, they seemed to be closing fast!

    Jackie and Woody had to put off their 'end runs' to rescue their partners -- teamwork paid off!

The survivors hatched a plan to send Woody and Jackie to the far quonset huts, while Quon and Coop would attract the zombies with their rapid gunfire. Dangerous plan -- especially for those two! And it became even more dangerous when Quon missed one of his shots and Coop ran out of ammunition. Yikes! The zombies closed in quickly, and by the end of turn 3, three zombies (including a 'Runner') had him surrounded in melee.

    At the end of the next turn, Quon is in a tight spot - surrounded by zombies, including a Runner!

Somehow, both Quon and Coop survived to fight off the zombies clustered around them. At this point, Quon had an idea. He would use the muddy areas throughout the compound to slow the zombies down. What's more, as the fastest of the crew, he would try to draw as many of the zombies towards him as possible. He would lead them away from his companions, and hopefully whittle down their numbers some while maintaining his distance and keep from being swarmed. With that, Jackie and Woody were freed up to head towards the back of the compound. 

    Jackie & Coop are also in a tight spot near the van -- was this mission going to end like the last one?

The zombie "A.I." for movement dictates a zombie not in contact will move towards the closest survivor -- unless there is one within 9" that made more noise. Quon's challenge was to keep as many of the zombies within 9", but use the mud to make it so none ended their turn in contact with him. He would be unable to fire at them with his pistol if that happened (his specialty). The effect of this was that about three quarters of the zombies piled after Quon while those furthest from him would shamble towards Coop or Jackie. Meanwhile, Woody was careful to keep his noise down so that they zombies would be drawn towards Quon and would not notice him sneaking into the other quonset huts.

    Quick on his feet, Quon is able to keep the zombies j-u-s-t out of reach as they slog through mud

 

Jackie had to go back and help Coop once, so she had not gotten very far towards the back of the compound. Woody opened the door of one of the quonset huts and was relieved to see just one zombie. He backed off again, letting it emerge through the doorway before crushing its skull with his crowbar. He darted in and quickly found more supplies inside. They'd finally be able to fill their bellies tonight -- if they survived.

   Cooly, Quon contines to use one action to splatter the nearest zombie and then back off out of reach

As Quon continued to back up, a collection of barrels behind him caught his eye. The words "Flammable" were visible and it gave him an idea. Why not draw all of the zombies towards this collection of barrels? And then when they are close enough, fire into them? Even if there was only a little gas left inside, the fumes should be highly explosive. When he saw Woody emerge from the quonset hut, tightening his backpack with whatever he'd found inside, Quon set the plan in motion. He warned Woody to back up further, out of what he hoped would be the blast radius. He sprinted there and joined him. Waiting till the zombies shambled closer, Quon eyed the barrels and fired.

    BOOM!! The zombies following Quon are vaporized in the resulting explosion!

 Meanwhile, Jackie was sprinting towards the final quonset hut. However, as Quon disappeared from the spawning zombies' view, the newest arriving of them began to key in on her. Having finally dispatched the zombies near the first set of huts, Coop picked a few of the spawned zombies off with his rifle. However, things were looking dire for Jackie, so he jogged around the hut and began to move to assist her.

    The zombies begin to focus on Jackie, hear the fence at right, as Quon has disappeared from view

Meanwhile, Woody took advantage of zombies being distracted and headed towards the final, smaller quonset hut. He forced the door open with a metallic groan. Quickly, he recoiled as three zombies staggered towards him. He called to Quon for help as he hefted his crowbar and waited for them to come nearer.

    Finally in the clear, Coop begins skirts around the quonset hut to help Jackie

Just as the zombies began to corner Jackie, Coop appeared holding his rifle like a club. "That new ammo you gave me jammed my rifle," he explained to Jackie, who looked relieved and confused at the same time. "I'll keep them off of you -- just start picking off the ones coming out of the mud."

    Loyal as ever, Coop jumps in front of the zombies shambling towards Jackie

While gunshots and thuds of a crowbar signaled that their companions were taking care of the zombies emerging from the hut, Coop and Jackie began to struggle. Coop missed on two attacks, as did Jackie. Last game, Jenny and I joked how my dice rolling was awful and was a big part of our failure. This time, it was Jenny whose luck had run dry. And specifically, Coop's luck. The burly marksman and brawler was surrounded by zombies and knocked down, wounded. Coop struggled to his feet while Jackie looked on in horror. More zombies closed in on her friend as she fired desperately. "Get out of here, Jackie!" Coop shouted.

    Quon bravely rushes in to draw the attention of the zombies from Coop, who has been knocked own

Frozen in indecision, She saw a blur of green as Quon sprinted into the midst of the zombies clustering around Coop, firing as he ran. "Jackie, go!" he shouted. I will draw them off - they can't move fast enough to catch me.!" Reluctantly, Jackie turned and ran for the back fence of the compound and began to follow in the tracks of Woody, who was similarly moving away along the barbed wire fence. "God damn it!" she hissed under her breath, tears starting in her eyes.

    The survivors exfiltrate from the compound with Quon luring the zombies away from his friends

Quon was in a tight spot -- no question. He began his turn with three zombies in contact. He smashed one's skull with the pistol butt and then ducked and sloshed his way out of the mud. The remaining two grabbed for him. Zombie RV rules allow a survivor to leave combat with a zombie, but the creature gets a "free hack" as he goes. Jenny picked up two dice to roll their attacks. Early on, we decided to roll the attacks of the zombies on each other. Snake eyes! Both missed!! Quon avoided the arms of both zombies and surged through the mud onto firmer ground. With a 7" move, and the zombies needing both actions to go 6", Quon was essentially in the clear at this point. Our spawn rolls brought no "Nasty Zombies" and only two "Runners," which we'd dealt with previously. 

    Woody and Jackie hoofing it towards the van as the closest zombies peel away to follow them

Unfortunately, the zombies in contact with Coop did not miss. Jenny rolled to see the effects of the hit and rolled a "6" -- Coop was dead. What's more, he would transform into a Nasty Zombie next turn. It was time to get out of the compound. Forget about the firearms that may be in the central hut! Time to run and live for another day! Quon was first to the van, and started it up. He threw it into reverse, slowing down as Woody and then Jackie came running up. Both piled in and they peeled out, exhilarated to be alive, but still in shock from the loss of Coop.

    Time to burn rubber and get the heck out of there! The three survivors speed off in the van

Well, how did we do? We searched all four resource tokens successfully, this time. Last time, we grabbed only two before having to flee off board. We also made it back to our van to escape, which was somewhat questionable last time. However, we did not complete the mission. The scenario rules dictate that we don't get the "key" for the last hut until we search the last smaller one. So, we had to do them in the order we chose. Nevertheless, I would count it as a "mission failure," according to the campaign rules I've been brainstorming. What's more, we lost Coop, who had the skills Shooter and Brawler. AND our only rifle! So, in two games, we'd lost our shotgun and rifle, and were left with only two pistols. So, at best, this was a partial success -- even though it felt MUCH more successful than last time.

Most importantly, we had a blast. The more I play Zombie RV, the more I like it. I like the modifications I've made to it, as well. I am looking for a fast-moving game that I can take to conventions and play with up to eight players. I'm beginning to think that this might be it. Jenny and I seem to be having fun controlling just two survivors each. So, if I pair up the players, I could have two per vehicle containing four survivors and have multiple vehicles entering at different points on a much larger board. Maybe the next test is to try it out on the Sunday night guys? We shall see. Until then, I hope you enjoyed the report. Feel free to download the rules from Wargame Vault -- they are a bargain at the $1 suggested price (though feel free to pay more, like I did!). 

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 104
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 95