Scavenging Among the City Blocks - Post-Apoc Scenario

 

    From left, Allen, Mike W, and Keith check out Mike S's ruined city block terrain

It had been since April that I'd run a game in my post-apocalyptic campaign using Wiley Games rules. My friend Mike S has been working hard on terrain for his own "Fallout" style games and was wondering if he could use his terrain for a scenario. All I would have to do is GM it -- he'd bring the terrain and set up his tabletop at our usual meeting place at Mike W's "Brewpub" basement. I knew it'd been too long since a game, so said, "Sure!"

    Allen's 'Followers of the Dark Prophet' move into the ruined shell of a building nearest them

Mike's terrain is mostly downtown city blocks buildings. All of them were fairly tall with several (or more) partially destroyed floors. Obviously, lots of work went into creating these. Some of the details are very surprising -- gargoyles on the outside of buildings, wires protruding from wrecked walls, and more. I'm not sure how many of them are "in progress" or if some or all are completely done. It was an impressive layout, for sure. Personally, I would have dirtied them up more with rubble, black-washing on the walls, and ageing the wood pieces showing. But then again, I probably never would have gotten SO much assembled like he has!

    With heavy cover and many windows to shoot from, each city block building was like a fortress

I was a bit worried how "fortress-like" Mike's layout was. My guess was it might minimize interactions between the five survivor gangs investigating the downtown. Mike placed a LOT of objective markers -- more than I usually do. I wanted to give him as much control over the scenario as possible, though, so said nothing. Once the game began, most of the factions advanced into a ruined building, climbing between the partially collapsed floors, and scavenging supplies. My guess turned out to be correct. There were only four gun battles that took place between the factions (plus four additional ones seeing factions firing on investigating Scout or Sentry Bots and the denizens of the "citadel." Mike had a very large building that looked like it began as a Gothic Warhammer piece of terrain. He crafted it onto a post-apocalyptic shell of a building, with ruined and crumbling walls. He said he didn't have a preference what was inside the citadel and told me to put in there whatever I want inside.

    Keith (in green) moves one of his miniatures while Mike S to his left enjoys the look of his tabletop!

I decided to make this even more of a joint scenario design. I extended an invitation to our friend Keith to come up with the bad guys or monsters that would be in the citadel. I asked him if he had any figures he'd been wanting to play with but hadn't had a chance to get on the table yet. He said he did, and sent me a link to his Orca Finn's Basement blog and pointed out the post-apoc denizens he wanted to use. I created cards for them and printed them off so they'd be ready if anyone investigated the citadel. I even offered bonus Renown Points to any faction that went inside. I didn't want to tease Keith and promise him his figs would get in a game and not have it happen!

    F Troop's Pvt. Hippie searches an objective marker (suitcase with pom pom) - the goal of the players

With five players on a 6'x4' table, I had two each deploy on the long edges, nobody on the citadel's short edge, and one on the opposite edge from it. They had to deploy all four of their survivors within a foot of the spot I indicated. I gave them extra deployment depth because I wanted to push them forward in the hopes of getting more interaction. Mike W's Bass Reeves deployed on the short edge opposite the Citadel. He groused a bit that there weren't as many objective markers near him compared to the others, likely a valid complaint. Nevertheless, his four figures advanced directly towards the building closest to their zone and began to scale it to reach the objective markers. Mike S had placed most on the upper floors. So, before the game, I asked the players how they wanted to handle scaling the interior of these buildings as there were no stairwells modeled. We came up with a system which was probably very generous. Keith likened his Nightstalker's ascent to"a group of Chinese acrobats." 

    Cpl. Killer climbs onto the roof of the citadel - modified Warhammer (?) building he incorporated

To the Bass Reeves' right, Allen's Followers of the Dark Prophet similarly moved into a city block building. They began to ascend to the second and third floors, where several markers were scattered. To his right, his brother Joel marched his F Troop forward, climbing the Citadel's roof, as well as moving alongside the building the Followers were exploring. Across from him, Mike S's Bucknuts entered the building to their front or moved down the street alongside it. We tease Mike S for his invariably aggressive play, and true to form, he fired the game's first shots. His leader Coop (yep, same figure from the Zombie RV games) squeezed off a shot at Pvt. Killer of F Troop, immediately knocking him out of action. Next, Coop fired through the opposite building's ruins and picked off Allen's Yeshua, who fell three stories to the ground, unmoving. Yep - same Mike, aggressive as ever!

    Two Bucknuts - Earle & Wrich - investigate a rubble pile in the lobby of a ruined building

Coop got his comeuppance immediately after, though, as another F Trooper climbed onto the roof and blasted away with his assault rifle. Coop toppled to the ground, wounded. The next thing to happen shows the advantage of playing a campaign over a one-off battle. Rather than firing at the shooter, Coop's compatriot Jackie dragged her wounded leader inside the building and out of line of fire. Mike knew that Coop was his team's best weapon and didn't want to lose him to a poor post-battle roll if he was knocked out of action. However, the two out of action figures meant the threshold had been reached for the Machines to be drawn by the sound of firing. In my version of the world of "Terminator," each 10% of out of action players draws a chance for the arrival of a Scout Bot. Because I was afraid the action would be limited by the terrain, with each city block a mini-fortress, I had increased the chance by an extra 10%. Sure enough, a Scout Bot rolled onto the map between Keith's Nightstalkers and Mike W's Bass Reeves.

   Scout Bot rolls onto the table drawn by the sounds of gunfire and dispatched by 'Skynet' to investigate

Seeing no Nightstalkers, it rolled in the direction of three of the Bass Reeves sheltering behind a burnt out car. Mike seemed unconcerned and was instead focused on payback against Allen's Followers of the Dark Prophet. Allen had knocked out one of the Bass Reeves last game, as well as a member of F Troop. He would pay for it as Mike sent nearly his entire force to pick off Napthali, who was actually on an errand of mercy. He'd jumped down from the second floor of the ruined building to check on Yeshua, and then carry him off-table. I give a bonus to the post-battle roll if an out of action character has been carried off the board by his comrades. Three members of the Bass Reeves squeezed off shot after shot at the black-robed survivor. He fell to the ground wounded, and then was shot again, while he lay there. Mike was relentless, though, and kept firing until Napthali had accumulated three wounds which takes a character out of action. In fact, that may be the very first time a player was taken out in one of our games because it reached its wound limit of three! Usually, a fortunate roll on the wounding table knocks them out, instead.

    Joel, Allen, Mike W, Keith, and Mike S enjoy the chance to get their survivor gangs out onto the table

This brought another Scout Bot onto the table. It ended up by Mike S's Bucknuts -- probably not a good place as his band is loaded with particularly lethal shooters. Sure enough, it was blasted several times before finally being knocked out of action. Shortly thereafter, a replacement came on board, though. This time it was a Sentry Bot clomping its metallic heavy feet in the path of the Scout Bot that was engaging the Bass Reeves. The Scout Bot had closed to within range of Big Bass and began thumping away at the concrete wall with its machine gun. The cover and the shock hit inflicted on the Scout Bot kept Big Bass safe, even though the machine missed by only one several times. Once Big Bass's men had finished off Napthali, they scrambled to the windows and doorway of the building and added their gunfire to the battle. Scout Bots were originally designed to by humanity to patrol vehicular traffic -- not intervene against heavily armed survivors. The three vs. one gunfight could end only one way with the bot knocked over, its wheel spinning as it sparked and smoked.

    Mike W's 'Bass Reeves' stalk across the streets on a mission to exact revenge on Allen's gang!

Downed bots are another source of scavenge in my games. Players can snag ammunition, valuable circuitry, and even guns from the disabled machines. Both Mike S and Mike W pounced on the bots they'd knocked out of action and quickly salvaged some parts and pieces to take back to their encampment. The Nightstalkers soon engaged the Sentry Bot as it clomped ever nearer to their location. The Sentry Bot, also only lightly armored, met no better fate. The combined gunfire of two Nightstalkers sent it crashing to the ground. Specialist Cypher of the Nightstalkers whipped out his toolkit and pounced on it. He had soon removed a valuable hunk of machinery and his gang members nodded at each other and took that as a cue to depart. The next bot to arrive, likely a Military Bot, would be much more difficult to defeat. They decided it was best to get out of the ruined city center while the getting was good!

    Keith's Nightstalkers demonstrate their 'acrobatic skills', ascending to the upper floors

There was one last act to be played out, though, before we called it an evening. Allen had darted his remaining two Followers into the citadel (carefully avoiding the firing lanes of the Bucknuts!). As they neared the open doorway, they heard loud and somewhat incoherent shouting from inside. The two nodded at each other and ran through into the room. They were met by three red-skinned mutations. They were humanoid in form, and even sported a large shock of blond hair sprouting from their skull-like heads. Their blue uniforms looked for all the world like 20th century suits. The creatures gesticulated at the two and shouted curses and profanities the two struggled to understand, but seemed too frightened to actually charge and attack them. 

    Allen's 'Followers of the Dark Prophet' encounter the citadel's annoying, verbally abusive mutants

The Followers shook their heads and raised their weapons. They fired on full automatic and soon all three were on the ground, twitching but no longer shouting. They rushed through the next doorway and first heard, then saw, three more of the annoying beings. "What the Hell are these things?" they mumbled to each other. More automatic gunfire and the creatures began to back off. From the next doorway, they heard more incoherent shouting coming closer to them. "Should we get out of here?" The two nodded to each other, and turned and ran back towards the entrance, followed by the insults of the creatures. 

    The textured round discs mark figures that have moved this turn in my games

We decided to call it at that point. A couple of the players' survivor gangs were already leaving the table. They had picked up the most accessible objective markers, and the Machines would soon be sending in its heavier warmachines. It was time to go! I was happy to see the players seemed to have fun. All five players took down at least one enemy, so the game wasn't without action, like I'd feared it might be. Still, I think I learned a bit about cramming too much hard terrain on the board. It was good to see the survivor gangs out on the table again, though. Hopefully, it won't be another six months before it happens again!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 208

Zombie RV: Exploring the Creepy Farms for Halloween

    Zombies chase survivors at 'Creepy Farms' -- a game with 6 players and 12 survivors on table

I had been wanting to run a big game of Zombie RV with all the players on the same board. Halloween being this week was a perfect excuse! I set up a countryside board this time, centered on two creepy (zombie-infested) farmsteads. We had a great turnout in my friend Mike W's downstairs "Brewpub" at this house, while the ladies partook of a Halloween-themed charcuterie upstairs. I had six players, including the return of our good friend Tom. It was great to drink beers and game with him on a Sunday evening, again. Welcome back, Ptomas!

    An overhead look at the 'Creepy Farms' table, with the locations of objective markers circled

The board was 5'x3', bigger than the three, individual 2'x2' areas we used last time we played (see Zombie RV Times Three). What difference would the 15 square feet vs. 12 make? Honestly, I wasn't sure! I thought it would be less compartmentalized and the players would feel more like they were all in the same mission,  and hopefully cooperating. I established two spawning points along the center line of the board, 18" in from each side edge. I represented the spawn point as the doorway to the farmhouses. Apparently, the local families had holed up inside and the zombies had broken in and were feasting on them. Lots of zombie feasters...as well as feasted-upon family members! Honestly, I think "spawn points" are one of the hardest things to rationalize on a gaming table. I can see when it is a board edge or street corner leading off-table, or something like that, but something in the center of the board requires just a wee bit of suspension of disbelief. Think of it as watching a play. A zombie play!

    Daisy & Coop leave the RV and set off to scavenge for supplies at the zombie-infested farmsteads

However, I was throwing in a twist in this game. Since each player controlled two survivors, there would be 12 total characters. That's equal to three, 4-survivor groupings in the base Zombie RV rules by David Bezio. My third spawn point would be completely random each turn. Each zombie arriving from that spawn roll would then have a separate calculation to see where on the board edges they would arrive. I divided the perimeter of the board edges 12" lengths and numbered them #1, #2, etc. We would roll to see which point we would start at for that particular Ordinary zombie, Fast zombie, or Nasty zombie,. This was followed by a d12 roll to see how many inches counter-clockwise from that point along the board edge it would be placed. 

    Jackie and Wrich set off to explore the ruined stone cottage looking for some supplies to scavenge

Afterwards, I asked the players if having to worry about zombies showing up behind them was too devastating and they all agreed it wasn't. The players get a movement after the spawning and before those just-spawned zombies move. So, they could clear out if a nasty zombie showed up just inches away -- which did happen. Ask Joel's "Earle" character, who spent most of the game running, it seemed!

    Meanwhile, the first set of zombies at the spawn point become restless and head toward the survivors

The players as a group would also start on a board edge, specifically either (or both) of the two long edges. I gave them up to three vehicles to "arrive" in. They would place the vehicle on either of the gravel roads running along the long edges of the board, and all their characters much start the game in contact with their particular vehicle. I gave the players some time to talk strategy, first pointing out all the objective markers on the board, what was difficult terrain, and so on. Although Tom tried to engage them in a tactics discussion, the group spent less than a minute doing so. NOT an auspicious start! Anyone who has played Zombie RV probably knows how cooperation amongst survivors is key to success. This dirty dozen's mission was to successfully grab at least eight of the 10 objective markers and then get off-table for the "win."

    Junior and Roman cross the ditch beside the road on the footbridge to investigate the veggie stands

As it was, they split up into three groups of four -- just like in classic Zombie RV. Mike W and Allen began on the near corner, not far from the pond. Keith and Joel began in the center, where the burnt out wreck blocked the driveway. On the far side of the board, Tom and Mike S parked my new RV model next to the toppled over truck blocking the other driveway exit. And then they scattered! Yes, they were spreading out to snag as many objective markers as quickly as possible. However, it seemed there was little cooperation or communication. Mike S turned his guys away from the shed he was heading towards once he saw that Tom's guys were going to get there first. Keith darted off down the road to the footbridge leading across the ditch which ran alongside the road. Allen's boys meandered towards the pond while Mike W's survivors split off from them towards the ruins of the old stone house. It seemed like it was every pair of survivors for themselves and -- crucially -- no group really close enough to the others to support them if they ran into trouble.

    After leaving the RV, Red and Mophius sneak inside the shed to find more supplies

Allen's Big Bass and Benny drew the attention of the zombies first. Benny drew the short straw and got to wade through the green water of the pond towards where a boat was tethered. There were a couple closed bins on it that looked promising to Allen. Oh, a side note on game mechanics: the players know the location of the objective markers. I marked them with pumpkins for this game! However, they must make a successful "Brains check" to actually find the items there. A Brains check is a d6 roll added to the character's Brains stat, which could be 1, 2, or 3. Guess what Benny's was? A "1"! Now we know why he drew the short straw! "Sure, Big Bass. I'll wade out there and search the boat if you say so." 

    Big Bass and Benny survey the farmstead before heading down the road and across the ditch

Meanwhile, Keith rolled an extra action for Roman (not "Moe" or "Schmoe"...ha, ha!), who was able to hustle down the road, across the bridge, and to the marker next to the farmer's fruit and vegetable stands. Roman is no dummy and successfully snagged some supplies. In the center of the table, Jimmy also had rolled an extra action and tiptoed quietly through the ditch, over the fence, and into pumpkin patch. He also found some supplies (probably some unharvested veggies which he quickly tossed in his backpack). Joel's other character, Earle (not Darrel!) crept along the same fence line towards the second cabin. The zombies who'd been clustered near the door ignored him and shuffled towards Big Bass and Benny, as did the ones from the opposite farmhouse.

    After popping off a couple shots at zombie horde, Earle soon decides to run back to the road

Annoyed at being deemed insignificant and not a threat, Earle popped off a rifle shot and splattered the head of the nearest zombie. That'll teach them, he thought. This changed their trajectory, as the horde quickly hurried towards him, as did the next batch to spawned by the farmhouse door. They ignored Jimmy in the pumpkin patch, who breathed a silent thanks to his friend Earle's bravery. Earle proved that bravery by promptly firing one more shot then bolting back to the gravel road and behind the ditch. Jimmy felt he owed his friend one, though, and raised his pistol and splattered a zombie pursuing Earle. He then hightailed it through the pumpkin patch, vaulting the fence, and entering the cornfield. He was joined by Junior and Roman, who pointed back towards the footbridge. A randomly spawned zombie had appeared on the road next to the bridge and was crossing in slow pursuit of the pair.

    Meanwhile, the zombies keep coming -- a minimum of 3 from each of the spawn points each turn

To the left of the pond, Mike W's Jackie and Wrich located the supplies and found some extra ammo. Jackie began the dangerous trek past the water tower and towards the other cornfield, all alone. Wrich wandered towards the farmhouse, took aim, and shot a zombie that was shuffling towards the pond. On the next turn, thrilled to see the zombie's head explode, he squeezed off two more shots. Two more zombies went down. The mob heading towards the pond ignored him because Big Bass was busy blasting away with his shotgun with both his actions. Meanwhile, Benny was puzzled by the latches on the bins. They appeared to be locked or resisting his efforts to pull them open. 

    Junior & Roman are surprised by a zombie spawning on the road behind them & dart into the corn!

Although Wrich was out of sight of the door to the farmhouse, the zombies who had just spawned there heard his gunshots clearly. Unfortunately for Wrich, one of those zombies was a Fast zombie. The whole crew spilled around the corner towards the surprised survivor. Wrich was even more shocked when one ran fast enough to come into contact with him. Uh-oh. Things were about to go south in a big way for our host's survivors!

    The zombies chasing Jimmy, Junior, and Roman wade into the cornfield, hopelessly slowed down

On the far side of the table, Tom's survivors were able to locate and secure the objective marker in the shed. Red and Mophius did a great job playing cat and mouse, staying out of sight of the zombie spawning points. Meanwhile, Mike S's Coop and Daisy headed the other direction towards another fenced field near the corner of the board. They also stayed out of sight as best they could. Unfortunately, that meant by far the bulk of the zombies headed towards the near side of the board and Big Bass and his friends. One group of zombies chased Jimmy into the cornfield, but had little chance of catching him. The rest all seemed to converge on the pond, or on Wrich. Jackie stopped her trek towards the far board edge and came back to help her friend, but she missed with her pistol fire more often than not. 

    Too far from the others, Jackie & Wrich are swarmed by zombies, including a deadly 'Fast zombie'

The Fast zombie had wounded and knocked Wrich down. Amazingly, though, he was able to use the medicine he was carrying, heal himself, and back up one move. However, that wasn't enough distance when facing a runner! She caught him again and knocked him down and wounded him once more. This time, some of the ordinary zombies were able to catch up, too. In our experience, when a survivor is wounded, knocked down and surrounded by zombies, he's dead meat. Wrich fought for his life desperately, though. Jackie waded in and tried her best to help him targeting the zombies with her pistol (and unfortunately, continuing to miss more than she hit). However, Wrich eventually was taken down. Jackie got too close, and was also caught and eventually killed, as well.

    Mophius faces off against a horde of zombies, while Red is wounded & knocked down by a Fast one

Far away on the opposite side of the board, Junior was doing a much better job using the cornfield to keep distance between him and the zombies. When random zombies showed up on the board edge near him, he blasted them effectively with his shotgun. Between Junior and Big Bass, they probably killed three quarters of the zombies I was putting back into my magnetized box as quickly as I was taking them out for spawning! Jimmy hung out with Junior and Roman, and the three eventually linked up with Coop and Daisy, who had not really accomplished much. Two pistols (Daisy's and Jimmy's), a rifle (Coop's), and Junior's shotgun were unfortunately all far, far away from where their companions were being swarmed and overwhelmed. 

    Daisy & Coop call for the others to head back to the RV while Red tries to fight off the Fast zombie

Big Bass and Benny ("Hey Bass, it's like these bins are tugging back on me...! I can't get them open!!") were about to be inundated with zombies slowly slogging through the pond. Big Bass was magnificent, though, firing blast after blast with his shotgun. He never rolled the dreaded natural one on his attacks, though, meaning he was out of ammo. I have ruled that since the shotgun fires in a cone and allows you to attack multiple targets, you are out of ammo only if the natural one shows up on your first roll of that cone. Zombie after zombie went down in the pond, sinking to its green depths. Earle was slowly backing up towards the duo, though, calling to them, "Nasty zombies, guys! Big ones! Coming our way. We gotta go!!" This was followed by Benny's surprised shout. One of the bin's had finally come open. Inside was a man who had been trying to hold it closed against Benny's tugging. 

"Man! I thought you was zombies!! You scared da crap out of me!" The survivor, who they'd later learn was nicknamed Curly for his bald, black head, leapt out of the boat into the pond, wading desperately towards the shore, away from the horde of zombies in the water. Benny followed him towards the gravel road, as did Big Bass. Earle zipped by all three of them, firing one final shot behind him. A pack of zombies were on his heels, including two Nasty zombies in the lead.

    Things look grim for Big Bass - out of ammo, wounded twice, and facing two Nasty zombies

Big Bass cocked his shotgun again, shaking his head and planting his feet. "Muthaf...BOOM!" He blasted away at the pack of zombies, again and again. His friends called to him to run, but Big Bass refused. The shotgun boomed out again. Suddenly, he was down and wounded. Still he raised his shotgun and aimed, "CLICK!" After being reliable all game and never running out of ammo despite the odds, Allen finally rolled a "1". Big Bass continued to fight, though. His friends had seen enough. They darted for the van to escape.

Across the table, a similar scene was played out. Tom's two characters were both in contact with zombies. Amazingly, Mophius was able to break away and make it back to the RV. Unfortunately, Red (not Trunk Monkey!) went down. A Fast zombie caught him, and when the ordinary ones caught up with the downed and wounded survivor, it was a brutal end. As three vehicles spit gravel as they pealed out, putting distance between themselves and the creepy farmsteads, silence soon returned to the area. The screams had stopped and the only noise was the sibilant, sickly sound of zombies feeding on fresh human flesh.

Roughly two and a half hours after we'd begun, it was over. My big game experiment with Zombie RV seen one of the highest percentage of survivors lost (33%) in any game so far. Had I made the game too difficult? I don't think so. In my opinion, a lack of cooperation had doomed the survivors who died. Wrich and Jackie were far away from any other survivors. So, when they hit their first setback, no one was there to help them out. Similarly, when Red went down, there was a lot of firepower unable to help him. Big Bass' end was probably a foregone conclusion. He had defied the odds all game long, dispatching hordes of zombies. He simply held his position too long. Benny took too long getting the objective marker, and Big Bass stood when he should have ran. 

I liked the big battle version of Zombie RV. Hopefully the players did, too! I will give them their experience points and let them buy new skills or improvements for next game before we try again. Feel free to comment below if you have questions about my additions to David's excellent rules. Oh, and Happy Halloween!!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 208

Giving Alpha Strike 'Stompy Robots' a Try

    My smaller Mech unsuccessfully plays 'Hide and Seek' with Jenny's bigger one in Alpha Strike

I've been remiss in documenting our gaming sessions, lately. It seems all of my blog posts are about painting miniatures or creating terrain. However, we do game weekly on Sunday evenings. I'd estimate one out of every four sessions is miniatures, though lately we've been doing minis more often. Our host is ambivalent about miniatures and prefers board games, but humors us. Here are some pictures from last Sunday's learning game of "Alpha Strike" -- the latest iteration of BattleTech, I believe.

    Not sure if the game is designed for 8 players, but Andy and Mike S gave it their best shot

Andy S and Mike S both wanted to play it. Keith also had a handful of mechs, which he has run the Wiley Games version (Alpha Suit). However, we used all of Andy's stuff this time. He tried to explain the whole "lore background" or history of the BattleTech universe, but we probably weren't as interested in that. We were more focused on learning the rules. Andy set up a city center amidst a wooded and hilly area, and then proceeded to put all his mechs out on the table for us to choose from.

    My force of 3 Mechs moves towards the cover of the center of town that Andy had set up

We were instructed to take 100 points worth, but not mix "Clan" and "non-Clan." He had a term for the non-Clan mechs, but I can't remember it at this point. I chose three -- a Guillotine, Wolverine, and Commando. The rules were pretty easy to pick up, though Andy had some modifications. He and Mike S went back and forth on deciding how to do the sequence of play. Alpha Strike appears to be a two-player (or at least two-sided) game, and our group doing an 8-player free-for-all probably was going to call for some changes. As usually seems to happen lately, the Wiley Games card activation system was inserted. Since all mechs move before any firing, it was actually an advantage to draw lower value cards and go last (which explains my Ace-King-Queen draw on Turn 1 or 2...ha, ha!

    Once in town, my Mechs go in all around defense try not to expose their vulnerable rear (???)

Andy and Mike made some changes on the fly, including scrapping a weird provision which allows the last moving mech to fire first and then returning to movement order. They said it doesn't matter since all firing is simultaneous, which made me wonder why we bothered to even use the cards to determine order of shooting. It got really weird when one mech wanted to charge another one and enter hand-to-hand combat. Apparently, big stompy robots (or "pilots" in mech suits) still do that far in the future. They ruled that if you charged an enemy mech who hadn't moved it could simply move away and avoid melee on its turn. Hunh?? They searched the rulebook and couldn't find a solution to this conundrum, so that was the way we played it.

    Two of my mechs fire at Jenny's force advancing - our 'cover' proved essentially worthless

All in all, the rules worked. Beginning with your skill value, adding cover and range modifiers, and the enemy's target modifier produced the score you needed on 2d6 to exceed for a hit. Once you hit, Andy's other change was that you roll 1d6 for each damage you would normally score on the enemy. If you rolled a 1-2, it was a miss. Guess what I rolled a lot of that evening? My dice rolling is usually pretty streaky, and tonight it was definitely on a bad streak. By the end of the game, I think I had scored only five total damage points on Jenny or Allen's mechs. Some mechs were doing more than that on just one hit!

I've never really been a fan of big stompy robots, aka Mech games. I will play the game again if they run it, of course. However, it didn't inspire me to go out and purchase the rules or begin buying and painting mechs. Instead of Mechs, it was more "Meh"....ha, ha!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 226
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 200 (see next update)

Zombie RV Times Three!

    The chaotic aftermath of the Shell Station board, overrun by zombies and on fire

I taught the Sunday Evening Gaming crew how to play Zombie RV last night. I had each of them create two characters using the campaign adaption that I am playtesting upon hearing the author's ideas. They paired up and were each given a 2'x2' block of zombie-infested city to explore. Jenny and I used our crew, back for their third mission with yet another new face, Curly. Having lost shotgun-wielding Mophius in Mission 1, rifle-armed Coop in Mission 2, would we actually make it through a game with all four surviving? Time would tell, but we were down to just two pistols for firearms, with both Woody and Curly armed only with hand weapons.

    Quon takes on the roll of the "rabbit," again...shooting at the zombies to lead them on a merry chase

I reworked my Quick Reference Sheets emphasizing in all caps that the first thing the survivors do is roll to see if anyone gets a third action ("6" on 1d6). Lo and behold, with us not forgetting to check, we actually rolled quite a few 6's! In fact, I would say the third actions that Quon and Woody (especially) rolled were key to our success. Quon chose to be the rabbit, again. He dashed into an alley way near the spawn point and fired upon the initial five zombies. Guess what? I rolled another natural "1" on my first shot of the game! That meant one of our two pistols was out of ammunition! Meanwhile, Jackie stealthily investigated Sams Quickie Mart while Woody began an end run to the water tower (where he could see a pile of boxes peeking out from the underbrush). New-guy Curly was given the job of investigating the factory nearest where our pickup truck was parked.

   We added a new wrinkle with a second survivor drawing off the zombies chasing Quon

Quon got a third action to start the second turn, and boldly ran up to the closest zombie, smashed its head in, and then scampered off, leading the zombies in merry pursuit. Both Jackie and Curly found more supplies in their respective buildings. Something weird, dice-wise, was happening in our rolls once we discovered a Resource Token. We only roll 1-2, which yields generic Supplies. We had plenty of food! However, we had yet to roll any weapons, ammunition, or new survivors. As a side note, Keith and Joel would roll TWO new survivors in their searches in their game. Side note #2: Don't let Keith and Joel name characters. Their choices for their four new characters? Moe, Schmoe, Darryl, Darryl. Their two new guys? Trunk (because that was where they found him hiding), and something I didn't even write down because it was equally silly.

    After leading the zombies into the underbrush beneath the water tower, Woody backs away

Meanwhile, Curly decided to get the zombie horde off of Quon's tail by moving closer and shouting. One of the rules I think I am going to add is you can always voluntarily add +1 Noise to your actions. This freed Quon up to slip around the corner and investigate the second factory. Meanwhile, Woody had waded through the underbrush beneath the water tower and found...a box with a grenade! A new weapon? Woo-hoo! He pocketed it, while keeping an eye on the new batch of zombies from the spawn point surging towards him. One included a mutated, Nasty zombie! He made sure they were scrambling over the wall into the underbrush before backing off and ducking behind the car on blocks. 

    Jackie prepares to blast away at the zombies until she rolls a "1"...CLICK!

After grabbing supplies from the Quickie Mart's shelves, Jackie fired out the window of the rear door, splattering a zombie. This led several of them to shamble towards her. She retreated out of the shop, with three zombies staggering after her in pursuit. Taking position near the overturned semi-trailer, she saw Curly round the corner running as fast as he could. She yelled at him to get in the driver's seat of the pickup truck and start the engine. She faced down the zombies staggering towards her, raised her pistol, aimed for the head of the nearest and...click! Our of ammo, again! What??

    As Curly drives the pickup truck, Jackie jumps in the passenger seat and Woody dives into the bed

Our crew was completely out of ammo, but had gathered all four resource tokens. Quon had quickly searched the warehouse and found more supplies (of course!). Woody continued to roll 6's for extra actions, so sped away from his zombie pursuers along the alley beside the Quickie Mart. Using our speed and the lack of any Fast zombies, we each made our way back towards the street. It was a close call, but Woody and then Quon dove into the bed of the pickup truck as Curly kept the vehicle just out of reach of the zombies. Our first truly successful mission!

    Firing from the barricade at zombies mired down in the brick pile, these guys had an easy mission

On the table to our left, Allen and Mike S were having a cake walk of a mission. The tire barricade left in place by the apartment complex (before it was overwhelmed), was a natural firing position. The brick rubble field near the spawn point meant all the new zombies s-l-o-w-l-y made their way towards shotgun blasting Big Bass and a rifle-armed survivor who looked like Coop's brother. Those two blasted away pretty much the entire game while their two compatriots quietly infiltrated the buildings containing the supplies. Once they'd collected all four, they ducked back through the alleys, hidden from the center commons were all the zombies seemed to be. All four were able to load up in their van and drive off. Yeah, I definitely made their board way too easy! That, and the only character on their board who rolled a "1" for shooting was the guy who had the extra clip!

    The 'new guys' - Blue Van Crew - laugh Jackie's boys as they drive by after their cake walk

The third city block, dominated by the Shell gas station, seemed to be a mess, though. Keith and Joel's survivors were scattered along the edges all across the board, with zombies swarming everywhere. Things looked grim until one of Keith's survivors (Moe or Schmoe, who knows?) found a Molotov Cocktail. He immediately tossed it into the biggest horde of zombies he could find, frying half of them instantly. Joel and Keith were also helped by two new survivors they rounded up hiding in the vehicles. With their clubs and cleavers, they were able to turn the tide and escape every time the zombies got too close. When Jenny and I had first finished our game, I looked at the gas station and thought they would lose two characters, at least. However, with Molotovs, fortuitous rolls, and skillful redirection of zombies, they were able to all escape. Barely!

    No cake walk at the Shell station! Zombies swarm towards three different survivors

Had I made the tables too easy this time? I definitely think Allen and Mike S's board was too easy. We agreed that their should have been gaps in the barricade where the zombies had broken through to overwhelm the residents of the apartment complex (and become the new zombies they were facing). Our board probably had too much terrain, too. I had been really happy in Mission 2 how survivors could lead zombies into difficult terrain to slow them down. I think I need a little more open board here, too, to give the zombies more of a chance. The gas station seemed okay, though. I clarified with the rules author that ordinary zombies should not clamber over vehicles, but instead be channeled around them. I'm not so sure, now. Maybe I will simply count them as difficult terrain and they will swarm around or over them, whichever is quicker? We'll see.

    One of Joel's 'Darryls' and Trunk shelter behind a rubble pile as a Fast Zombie scampers their way

The Sunday Evening gamers enjoyed Zombie RV, though. They handed me their character sheets and said they wanted to play it again, keeping the same survivors for a loose campaign. Jackie's Crew even traded some supplies to the Darryls & Schmoes so they wouldn't go hungry. In return, we recruited one of their new guys to our crew. I think I will be doing some renaming, though. I'll paint a name on the base of the new survivors I've painted up, like I had done with the others for my post-apocalyptic campaign. I didn't spend hours on them for someone to slap Moe or Schmoe on them...ha, ha! 

    Earle (who Joel renamed Darryl) and Moe? Schmoe? sneak around the back of the Shell station

Now the new challenge will be to tweak the rules to manage a bigger game with 10-12 characters on the board. I'm thinking of trying that rather than having three separate games going on. Some ideas:

• At least a 3'x3' area, maybe bigger. 
• Multiple spawn points. 
• Wandering zombies arriving on random board edges each turn.
• A chance that each room a survivor enters may have one or more zombies in it -- like in the Army Base scenario we played for Mission #2.

    A fortuitous find of a Molotov cocktail blasts the zombies moving towards Trunk on the rubble pile

I would love to hear suggestions from others who have done this, or have ideas!

    Zombies mumble and groan about the Keith and Joel that got away on the Shell station board...!

Giving Rebels & Patriots AWI Rules a Try

    Our second game of Rebels and Patriots was considerably bigger with 3-4 units each instead of 1-2

The last couple weekends of Sunday night gaming have been trying out Rebels and Patriots: Wargaming Rules for North America - Colonies to Civil War. These are written by Michael Leck and Daniel Mersey and are from the "Rampant" series of rules. So, the concepts would be familiar to us who had played Xenos Rampant not too long ago. As each iteration of the Rampant engine is slightly different, a key part is learning those changes. Since Keith was the one hosting (and owning) the rules, it was up to him to explain the differences.

    The British are marching from the top of the photo and attempting to exit off the opposite edge

Our first game was a very simple affair -- refighting the British attempt to make it from Lexington to Concord on the day of the "shot heard round the world." The British players (Jenny and Joel) had two higher quality units each, while the Rebels (Mike S, Allen, Mike W, and myself) had six lower quality units. All of our units were Skirmishers and we would not stand up to any British charges, hoping instead to pass our discipline check and shoot and scoot away. Sometimes it worked as planned, other times not as much.

    Allen's unit of militia is the first to take a stand against the advancing British regulars

A key feature of Rampant rules is you need to roll to activate a unit on 2d6 vs. a certain number. In Rebels and Patriots, this activation roll (Move, Fire, Skimish, etc.) is modified by your unit's discipline level. Most of the British force were +1, while much of the Rebel force was -1. The target number is "6". Doing the math, you will see most rebel units would actually need to roll a "7"to succeed. This is modified by +1 if the army commander is within 12". Allen did a great job moving his commander to where he would be able to give his bonus often to as many units as possible.

    A key point of the battle as when the British attempted to push the Americans from a small village

My rolling to activate was awful, nonetheless. Most of the game, my single unit I commanded was within 12" of General Allen. However, I failed more than 2/3's of my activation rolls. So, that means on 2d6 I rolled 5 or less two thirds of the time! Waaaay under average!! Still, other Rebel players (particularly Mike S) were doing much better. They were wearing the British down with their fire. Our goal was to knock the British under half strength. Once we did that, we would have achieved our victory condition. Thanks to my teammates, we did so. I think I actually shot and killed enemy figures only once during the game. Thank goodness for the others, though!

    Keith was excited to get his "true 25mm" troops out on the table after years of languishing in boxes

We decided that we liked the rules well enough to give them a try again the following week. I recommended Keith do more of a straight up battle, this time. He'd found the Lexington & Concord scenario online, and wanted to follow it. I said commanding one lone Rebel unit with a -1 discipline (like both Mike W and myself did) doesn't make for a really tactically interesting evening. I said give us "X number" of points of troops and let us line up against each other and test out the rules. Keith listened to my suggestion, and we each were given about 18 points of troops. For the British (which was me this time), that meant three units. For the Americans, that usually meant four. However, I was to find out that not all of the Americans were as bad as my poor militia last week.

    Here's what my three units of British troops were facing in the second game -- outnumbered 7-3!

In fact, I found myself matched against the cream of the Continental army. Mike W controlled four units -- the Continental artillery, two Continental Light Infantry units, and one Militia unit. He rolled "box cars" (12) to activate once and was given yet another unit. Three of his units had a Fire Factor (score needed on 1d6 to cause a hit) of 4+. None of my outnumbered troops did (we were 5+). He had two units with Discipline +1, while I had one. I was definitely facing a superior force -- more so because I was also facing two units of Joel's command when we lined up. At one point it was my 3 units vs. 7 American units!

    I sent my unit of Lights in skirmish to keep the Brit left at bay, and advanced my others on the center

I decided the smartest thing to do would be to delay and distract the enemy, allowing my compatriots to beat the rest of the enemy army. I sent my British Light Infantry in skirmish formation to catch the attention of the artillery and left wing of the enemy. My other two units obliqued towards the center to help Mike S break through with his Hessians. My Lights were in the most danger, so I moved them forward and backwards, trying to keep the hilltops or woods between us and the enemy cannon. They were getting worn down, though. I had occupied Mike's superior forces for 4-5 turns, so I moved them back once they fell to 7 figures left out of 12. In Rebels and Patriots, once you fall down to half strength, bad things tend to happen. Your attack dice are halved and you receive a permanent disorder marker (which gives a -1 to morale checks and activation checks).

    Our goal was to break through the patriot lines, so all three of us marched forward to give it our best

Speaking of morale checks, the Rampant games usually require units that take casualties from fire to roll a 2d6 roll vs. a target number (6 in this game) to pass. You subtract the number of casualties you took from that roll. This is the key mechanic of the game, in my opinion. You want your opponents to fail that morale check and get a disorder marker. Then, if they try to rally it off, each marker is a -1. Roll low enough and you retreat or even flee the table. You don't usually eliminate an entire unit from musketry in this games, it seems (which make sense). You instead try to give them so many negative modifiers that sooner or later they will have a big failure and run away.

    Our best chance at smashing through was with Mike S's center command of Hessians

The other key mechanic in the rules is units roll 12 dice when shooting or attacking in melee as long as they are above half strength. Success is rolling your Fire Factor (remember my 5+ and Mike W's 4+). Each success is a "hit," and hits are grouped together to create casualties. The base number is two hits = 1 casualty (figure removed). However, long range, terrain, target in skirmish, etc., all up that number by one. So, I had my Lights in skirmish formation and kept them at long range meaning Mike caused one casualty for every four hits. Unfortunately, Mike W was rolling hot that night and wearing my units down. He wasn't rolling as well to activate, though. So, that enabled me to keep tying down a superior part of their force with my inferior one. Success, right?

   Although they got slapped around by cannon fire and musketry, the Brit Lights did a great job occupying a much superior force

Well, that all depended on Mike S and Allen's attacks being successful! Allen started out well against Keith, but was battered in the end and had half of his troops destroyed or flee off-table. All our money rode on aggressive-playing Mike S coming through with his attack in the center. I had pulled away some of Joel's center to face off against my other two units who were attacking in echelon in support of the Hessians. Mike S had been the hero of the American victory last week. Could he be the hero again tonight as a Brit? 

    Hessian command slams into the patriot center, and one by one, the American units begin to break

It looked like Mike was going to pull it off. He pierced Joel's line. On Joel's resulting morale checks, he suffered a disastrous series of failures. A number of his units fled the field. Soon, there was no British center. Unfortunately, Keith and Mike W had wheeled forces to fire upon the exploiting Hessians. Ranges in Rebels and Patriots are long (18"), and on what we said would be the final turn of the game, they blasted away at the Hessians, disordering all three units. Ugh! There went the clear victory!

    The Brit (Hessian?) high water mark -- table edge in sight with no enemy in between!

Based on troops remaining and losses, we decided to call it a bloody draw. We had been very close to securing our breakthrough that was our victory condition, but a last effective turn of American fire and poor morale rolls on Mike's and my part blunted that. Still, it was a fun game. Doubtless, we will be playing more Rebels and Patriots on future Sunday evenings. We have to because Keith went out and bought more figures, right?

    The American counter-attack on their last turn took some wind out of our sails, forcing us to stand around and debate who really won...