Four More Survivors (Replacements?) for Zombie RV

    4 more survivors for my Zombie RV games because...well, other ones "got 'et'!" Ha, ha

I decided that it would be a good idea to paint up the occasional survivor for my Zombie RV games just in case we continue to lose people. A couple weeks ago, I dug through my unpainted lead and picked out a eight armed with melee weapons or various firearms. This is the first of those eight. A batch of four replacements - two with pistols, two with melee weapons.

Once again, these 28mm miniatures are from various manufacturers. The tall guy holding two pistols is a Foundry figure from their Street Violence line in the "Scabies Punks" set. The two bald guys are from Battle Valor Games. The policemen was purchased in a flea market, so I honestly don't know what line he comes from. He's very tall, and the slotta base (ugh - I hate those things!) doesn't help with him looming over the other figures!

    My favorite of the batch from Foundry's 'Street Violence' range -- Mick, armed with two pistols

My favorite is the Foundry fig. His musculature really popped with the dark flesh wash I do in the beginning and the brown wash that I do at the end. The leather harness holding his magazines looks great, but my favorite part of how I decided to paint his pants. I went with black pants and metallic decoration on them. The stripe down the leg I painted in an almost florescent green to go with his punk rocker red mohawk and droopy mustache. I was tempted to do some tattoos on him, too, but honestly completely forgot about it! Still, he stands out from the other four already, so I guess he didn't really need the tats!

    Because my friend Keith wanted it, here's a survivor named 'Moe' -- from Battle Valor Games

The two bald guys are very similar figs, just armed with different weapons. Interestingly, they came form different packs. One is from Pulp 06A Civilian/Survivors and the other from Pulp 05A Civilians/Survivors on Battle Valor Games' website. So, to differentiate them more I painted one up black and the other white. I tried to use ordinary looking clothes as these are supposed to be survivors of the zombie apocalypse, not uniformed troops. In Zombie RV, replacements for your gang typically come with just a melee weapon. I wanted to make sure I had a couple of these guys ready in case, you know, the zombies get hungry! Once again, I thought about giving them logo wear or some sort of writing or decoration on their jackets. I ended up deciding not to do it as I couldn't think of anything to inspire me. Lame excuse, I know!

    I like this pose holding the flashlight in one hand and his pistol in the other - not sure who it is from!

The police officer is a pretty cool pose. I like how he is holding the flashlight in one hand and has his pistol raised in the other. Since Rick in the Walking Dead TV series was a police officer, it makes sense that some cops would survive the initial apocalypse. I mean, they're armed and have the training, right? I painted his uniform up to match my other police officers that I painted long ago for both Pulp and my Mean Streets gang warfare rules. He painted up very quickly, considering there are basically two clothes/uniform colors on him!

    An almost identical pose to 'Moe,' C.J. from Battle Valor Games is armed with a knife instead

I decided to go ahead and name these survivors. I found out what happens when I let my players name them...ha, ha! Still, in deference to my friend Keith, I gave him a "Moe." He won't get a "Schmoe," but at least he has one of the names he chose out of thin air the first time we played Zombie RV. So, what else is on my painting desk? LOTS! I have an emergency batch of 9 Dark Age peasants that I hope to get done in time for Sunday's game. Not sure it is going to happen, though, since it is Wednesday as I type this and I have only the flesh completed. I also have some more Sci-Fi terrain and one or two other oddball things. So, stay tuned to see what gets finished next...!

    Another look at the whole crew - and the police department die cast pickup I got at the grocery store!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 239

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

RV Scratch-Build for...well, Zombie RV!

    Zombies swarm survivors holding out atop their RV, scratch-built from a pizza truck die cast shell

Readers of my blog know that I've been playing Zombie RV over the last few months. Instead of an RV, I've been using my 3-D printed vans, SUVs, land cruisers, etc. But the name of the game is RV (or campervan, Airstream, mobile home -- whatever you want to call it), so I've been trying to pick up one either from die cast, 3-D print, or anything, really. After striking out finding anything I liked commercially, I finally decided to scratch-build my own. I picked up a inexpensive pizza truck die cast toy from the local grocery store and set out to convert it into a recreational vehicle for my survivors.

    The material I used to convert the pizza truck into an RV was JTT Corrugated Siding sheets

First step was to find the corrugated material I intended to plaster onto the sides. I was surprised that the local craft and model trains didn't carry it any longer. I ended up having to order it on Amazon. No biggie, but my mantra is to shop local and support the hobby and craft stores. I feel that if we all end up ordering things online rather than driving down the street to get what we need, our local stores are going to go out of business. Others may disagree, but I feel pretty strongly about it.

    1st step was to glue wooden craft sticks to the corners of the truck to create the frame & level surface

Next step was to cut to size and glue craft sticks to the corners of the flat sides so that the material would have an even and not sloped surface to adhere to. I used tacky glue to do that because the plastic material was going to completely encircle the vehicle. The chances of it being popped off were slim, I felt. The craft stick frame also gave something for the corrugated material to attach to at all corners. 

    Next step was to glue the corrugated material to the craft sticks and front of the truck

You've heard the phrase, "Measure twice, cut once?" I took that to heart and double checked my measurements when I but the corrugated material in the next step. I wanted it to be as exact as possible (especially on top, where I wanted the vent fan to project through a hole). I was pleased that the care I took paid off and I had no disasters or mistakes from bad measurements. Essentially, I was enclosing the pizza truck in a corrugated rectangular box. RVs tend to have a grooved or corrugated material, it seems, so I chose this material to make it give that effect.

    No matter how careful you are cutting, there will be gaps where they don't join perfectly

Even though I feel I did a pretty good job cutting the five sides (including the top), I knew there would be places where it didn't line up perfectly and there would be gaps. The photo above shows what it looked like after all the sheets were glued onto the truck and craft stick frame. Besides no cutouts for the wheel wells, it looks a little haphazard, doesn't it?

    These L-shaped pieces of plastic would cover up the joins between the sheets and any gaps

I had planned for that, though! The local model train store has a great selection of Evergreen plastic pieces (no corrugated material, but lots of rods, L-shapes, U-shapes, and so on). I bought two sizes to be on the safe side and went with the larger one. Weirdly, I don't have a picture of the size I ended up using -- "295" or 5/32". Anyway, I carefully measure these and glued them into place. Where one L-section joins another, you have to slice away a little rectangle of the material otherwise it will stick out. That called for even more careful measurement!

    The RV after the L-shapes are glued into place at each join and the wheel wells cut out

In the end, all these extra steps give you a much more smooth looking vehicle. L-shape pieces can also be used for MDF or hand made buildings at the corners to give it a smoother look, too. As for the wheel well, I kind of eyeballed it. I traced a likely looking arc onto a piece of cardboard. I cut it out the cardboard, and then traced its arc onto the corrugated material with a Sharpie. The corrugated material is thin enough it can be cut with a sharp pair of scissors, which I did carefully, then covering up the edge with arcs of cardboard to represent the trim. The base RV was done. Now, it was time to trick it out with windows, doors, and other accessories!

    The window frames were pieces of MDF from a bag of doors and various other Sci-Fi pieces

I dug through all my various MDF pieces and other terrain pieces looking for something I could glue onto the sides of the RV to be the window frames. Eventually, I found some "Block O" shaped pieces that I thought might work. They were a little thicker than I liked, but the shape appealed to me, so I went with them. I would put two windows on the side without the door and one on that with it. The back, besides the ladder, would have a narrow oval shaped window which I also had a piece of MDF to match.

    Before gluing the MDF window frames to the RV, they were first glued to clear plastic surface

Some of you may be thinking, "Wait -- won't the corrugated material look silly as a window?" YES! You are correct! However, I thought of that beforehand, as well. I dug through my unpainted stuff and found something in a blister pack. I cut out the thin plastic material and glued the MDF window frames to them, first. Then I used an X-acto knife to trim the edges. The blister pack plastic would sit atop the corrugated material and would paint smooth, giving a more believable window.

    The back of the RV with all of its add-ons done, including a ladder and big electrical outlet socket

I got really lucky on the ladder to attach to the RV! I had recently bought some 3-D printed trailers and a water tower from Bad Goblin Games, each of which included ladders in them. Some of the ladders were a bit long, and I could cut off just enough to make a nice ladder on the back of the RV. The circular MDF piece above is meant to simulate an electrical plug-in (in happier, pre-zombie apocalypse days...).

    The other side of the RV with the door, a Liberty Bell coin, and a tank and tube on top

For the RV's door, I just used a piece of balsa wood with a slatted look to it. I created a frame for it from craft sticks, and then almost forgot to glue on a tiny piece of dowel as the door handle (look for the finished pictures to see this late, oh crap, addition! The coin with the Liberty Bell on it has been sitting in my bits box for a couple decades, I would guess. I knew I would use it one day, and today was that day! I glued it to the side so that it would have a nice, patriotic design on the side. Atop the roof, I added a 3-D printed propane tank on its side and a piece of pipe from Miniature Building Authority. I decided not to use the tire in the end, as you will notice in the finished pictures. I figured it didn't make sense to store spare tires up there -- how would you get them up there? And would you just toss them down??

  RV painted and covered in a dirty black wash to simulate the grime accumulated since the apocalypse

I painted the corrugated material with white acrylic gesso, in hopes it would stick to the plastic surface better than just ordinary primer. The corrugated material was painted a craft paint called "Maple Sugar" and then dry brushed a very light yellow. Since nearly all RVs you see on the road are two-tone, I decided to go with a dull red since, well, the die cast truck was red! The corrugated material made making the stripes easier than it might have otherwise, just following in the grooves. I dry brushed the red trim with salmon to give it an equally worn look. The propane/water? tank atop was painted Iron Wind Metals Steel and highlighted Pewter. Same with the ventilation grill on the roof.   

    Zombies swarm the RV on all sides, looking for a way to get at the survivors atop it

I am really happy with how the RV came out. It is not perfect, of course. I need to make the sides of the RV not drag so low to the ground. Maybe there is a way to glue the wheels into place so it stands off the ground a little higher? Or, as I plan on doing another one, I could always cut the corrugated material shorter leaving a higher ground clearance. The window frames are probably too chunky, too thick. For my next one I will experiment with something smaller. I imagine I could also just use thick cardstock cut to the correct shape. I got lazy on the windows. I did them like the windshields on my 3-D printed cars, and it doesn't look as convincing here. Another idea I had was to find an image online of curtains pulled back in a window and just print it out and glue it into place. I may try that for the next one.

    Will the survivors drive off the hordes from their rolling home? Stay tuned & see in Zombie RV!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024 (Next year, I want to tally terrain and scatter, too. If anyone has any ideas how to do that, I'd love to hear!)

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 170
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 183 

LAST of the Zombie Horde (and a Vehicle)

    My final batch of zombies (hopefully!) along with a 3-D printed car from Diabolical Terrain

Okay, so I swear -- this is the last of the batches of zombies that I will be painting up for awhile. Hopefully, for quite a while...maybe forever??  We shall see if my horde proves to be enough, though. I think it will be. The ultimate goal is to be able to play a game of Zombie RV with three vehicle's worth of survivors (a dozen) on the table. This should be enough. If not, I have some more of the original 3-D printed on from John Leahy of JS Wargamer Printing I could rush into service.

    Though there is a lot of possible variety with the WF zombies, I was getting tired of painting them

These are the last 10 male zombies from the Wargames Factory box I bought in the flea market at Historicon 2024. It was a great deal ($15), so 50 cents a figure! I do admit I am tired of painting them up...ha, ha! My friend Keith did a nice job putting them together and varying bodies, heads, arms, etc. Still, there are only so many of each type and it is beginning to feel repetitive. Still - my friend Jason M in South Carolina informed me that I have now eclipsed his zombie horde. Keep an eye on his blog (Miros' Games) to see if he paints some more to regain the upper hand!

    Three of my gaming friends as zombies -- Keith, Joel, and Allen (from left to right)

I had been threatening all along to paint some of these WF zombies up as my gaming friends. I made an attempt with this final batch, painting up a Keith Zombie, Joel Zombie, and Allen Zombie. Not 100% sure I nailed it or not. There's only so much you can do with the paint brush and finding a pose that matches my (thankfully) not undead friends! Still, it might be good for a laugh on the table. Especially if Keith Zombie kills Keith's character in a game...

    Guys go off in search of snacks, Allen in his Bexley shirt and Keith in his Rules Lawyer one

These were painted exactly like the previous batches, so I won't bore you with repeating my recipe. Interestingly, I did run out of 1" circular bases with this batch. So, that means I've painted more than 100 figures using this size and shape base this year. I'll take that as encouragement that my production is continue to hum along since retirement. I am looking forward to painting some new stuff. I'm also eager to get back to painting some Sci-Fi stuff, soon. Thanks to a friend's recommendation (Steve P from San Diego), I picked up a set of rules called Space Weirdos from Wargame Vault. They seem quick and easy, and I like the rolling of two dice to get a more consistent average as opposed to a single die. The dice progression aspect, with players rolling as anything from a pair of d4's to d6's, d8's, d10's, and d12's sounds like a nice mechanic, as well.

    Are these the last zombies I will paint up? If I have enough now, then the answer is YES!!!

I intend to try them out for Sci-Fi skirmish games for the Sunday evening crew. We have been playing Wiley Games' Galactic Heroes, which works fine. I'm not crazy about the short ranges for futuristic weapons, though. Yes, yes, I know. Stormtroopers can't hit anything even at close range in Star Wars. However, the short ranges in Wiley Games rules somehow feel wrong in this period. Ranges are line of sight in Space Weirdos. There are modifiers for some weapons if they are further away, but every shooting weapons can hit everything else, range-wise, in the game. Of course, the board is smaller, 2'x2' or 3'x3' being what they recommend for two player games. I will probably have to extend that horizontally for six-player games, of course. We'll see if it feels "weird" shooting the whole length of the board!

    Aww, I think I hurt their feelings...they are walking away. Come back, guys -- I didn't 'mean it...!

The other thing I painted up in this blog post is another 3-D printed vehicle from Diabolical Terrain. Rather than sitting down and painting up everything I bought from Ron, I have been mixing them in here and there. As always, I spray paint the vehicles Krylon Fusion Matte Black, which is followed up with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water. I decided to paint this one silver as it is such a common car color on our roads, nowadays. Plus, it will show any discoloration and rust a bit better. I went back to painting a blue band at the top of the windows to represent the sky reflecting off the windshield and windows. And of course, I added in cracked windows because most of my games that I use them in will be post-apocalyptic (or zombie apocalypse). 

    I have been pleased with the 3-D printed vehicles I've bought from Diabolical Terrain

For the rust effect, I painted the area a dark brown first, followed by a lighter "rust" brown inside that area, leaving a dark brown line. Inside the rust brown, I painted a Georgia Clay to show the brighter, more flaky, rust. I am happy with how this one came out. I know that I ran out of 3-D printed vehicles when I set up my board for Hold the Line, so I need to get cracking on working these in more regularly!

    These 3-D prints paint up quickly and look nice on the tabletop, I think...

Speaking of getting cracking, I am actually nearly done with my next batch of figures -- two warlord stands to donate as prizes for the Saga tournaments at Advance the Colors. I also have some Sci-Fi terrain that I have spray painted. So, quite a bit should be coming up soon! Stay tuned, and see what's next!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 170
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 164
  

Zombie RV at Hold the Line 2024

    Zombies running amok in a trailer park during my games of Zombie RV at Hold the Line 2024

I hosted two sessions of Zombie RV at Hold the Line convention inside the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, OH. I had three 2'x2' boards set up and was planning on two players teaming up to run the survivors on each board. Four players signed up for the 10am session and two in the 2pm session. Hold the Line is a relatively new convention with a LOT of tournament players and it is still growing its standard, non-tourney games. I feel there were definitely more attendees at the show this year compared to its debut last year. So, I was happy with a 50% fill rate.

    Morning session with four players trying to scavenge supplies from the Zombie Apocalypse

One of the boards featured my two fortified, 3-D printed trailers from Bad Goblin Games and one heavily-modified MDF trailer from Sarissa Precision. There were various other bits of terrain on the board, including burned out cars, smaller storage trailers, and a small patch of woods. This board was chosen by the players to explore in both sessions. It was nice to get my newest painted terrain out on the tabletop, and I got lots of praise from players and passers by for how it all looked.

    Zombies wandering the industrial board trying to track down the player characters (their next meal)

Another board featured an industrial area, with two factories, a convenience store, ruined building, water tower, oil storage tank, and even a smoldering, crashed helicopter. This one was played in the morning session. The third board, that did not get chosen, was my Shell service station with a parking lot full of burnt out vehicles, gasoline pumps, and various other bits of trash and rubble. I even jazzed it up with something new. I had saved the plastic windshields from the die cast vehicles that I had burnt up. I put them inside a ziploc bag and broke them up into tiny pieces. I poured this around the building to represent broken glass from all the windows. Looked cool even if no one played on that board!

    Zombies move towards survivors according to an "A.I." in the Zombie RV rules

In addition, I had created stat cards for each of the characters, listing their scores in each attribute (Might, Brains, Quickness), their two Level 1 skills (and which die rolls they affected), along with the equipment they were carrying. As per Zombie RV, one character had a rifle, another a shotgun, the third a pistol, and the fourth only a melee weapon. Two other melee weapons and one supply of extra ammo was also distributed among the characters in each four-character survivor group. I had also created a pair of double-sided QRS sheets with all the relevant charts and tables, as well as detailing the zombie "A.I." which directs their movement. Finally, I had created noise tokens from wooden disks, flocked to resemble asphalt, and featuring a number of grayish-white stones equal to the noise token number. I arranged the pattern of the stones to mimic the pips on a 6-sided die. It is one of my things, I realize. If a game calls for markers on the tabletop, I want to create something that blends in with the battlefield and adds to its look rather than detracting from it.

    Junior with his noise token indicating "2," is in trouble with zombies coming at him from both sides!

Everything was all set up for the players, including a vehicle as each group's starting point -- van, pickup truck, or RV. Five ordinary zombies were already lurking at the spawn point, ready to shamble towards the survivors after they took their first turn. I explained the rules first, and everyone agreed they were easy to pick up and had no problems running the game themselves after the first turn. Typically, I have the players make all the die rolls for the zombies, too, rather than trying to be everywhere and do them myself. My role was to dole out the zombies each turn, help adjudicate any questions, define the terrain, and so on. 

    A wounded 'Roman' is chased behind a trailer by one Nasty zombie and 3 ordinary ones

As I'd hoped, Zombie RV ran great as a convention game. All of my players had fun and some said they were going to pick up the rules themselves, too. Only one of the three games was a complete victory/success for the survivors. I define a completed mission as one in which they pick up the resource tokens on all four quarters of the battlefield, return their vehicle, and drive off. Even that one success was a near thing, too. We did a kriegsspiel at the end and talked our way through what would happen on the last couple turns. It appeared fairly likely the last straggler survivors would make it unscathed back to their vehicle. So, rather than move the enormous number of zombies they'd spawned during the two hours of the game, we did some measurements and agreed they'd make it off. Barely!

    Zombies attacking the survivor's van where two of the characters have taken refuge

A similar thing happened in the 2pm game. A pair of survivors were trying desperately to run from cover to cover along the edge of the board and stay out of sight of the various hordes of zombies that had collected. One was wounded and moving at essentially half speed. Meanwhile, another of their original group had bailed out and exited off the back edge of the board. With two wounds, he was fairly certain that he'd never make it back to the van. He hoped to link up with his friends later, but it would be suicide to try to run the gauntlet. The other two survivors in the van (they'd located another survivor armed with a melee weapon in their first search), were driving the van back and forth running over zombies and trying to keep the attention of all the zombies on the board before the van was surrounded and overwhelmed. It was a tense ending to the game, with the player controlling those in the van ready to abandon the other two more than once!

    Sonny & Woody (new guy found hiding) race back to the van to get off the zombie-infested table

That's one of the things I really like about Zombie RV as a game. It is cooperative, and the players have to brainstorm how to get to all the search spots and not be surrounded and overwhelmed by the zombies. Players are forced to take risks, and you can feel the tension when important rolls have to be made or otherwise a survivor is likely to be swamped by numbers and taken down. That happened twice in the morning game in the trailer park. The players lost two of their four survivors and eventually fled the table back to their van. The players had to take the same risks that the other survivor gang did in the afternoon game. In the afternoon game, fortunate die rolls allowed the survivors to escape the clutches of the zombies. In particular, shotgun-wielding Junior managed to escape what looked like certain death not once but twice! However, in the morning game, Daisy and Sonny were not so lucky. When the zombies closed to contact, and the survivors tried to flee on their next turn, they were knocked down and wounded. That spelled the end of each, as there was no way to get away as it takes a wounded player's only action to stand up.

    Per the player's plan, Big Bass waits in hiding behind the helicopter, ready to ambush these zombies

I did not run out of zombie figures, which I admit I was worried about. I'm very glad I finished my most recent batch of four "nasty zombies," though. A couple games had two to three of them running around on their board. There weren't many "fast zombies" rolled, which was fortunate for the players. Their speed (equal to the survivors and twice as fast as an ordinary zombie) has a way of throwing carefully choreographed plans out the window! In fact, that's one thing that successful survivors must do -- mentally map out where the zombies will end up and ensure that survivors are able to keep their distance. If more than one zombie is able to close with the same survivor, things definitely look bleak in this game.

   Things are looking bleak for Daisy as she is chased by a horde of zombies through a burnt out truck

Zombie RV is NOT a game of mowing down hordes and hordes of zombies. Ammunition is short, firearms are in a questionable state of repair, and you never know when you're going to either run out of ammo or have the weapon jam. Then the survivor is left with a glorified club! Actually, in game terms, you do know when it is going to happen. If you roll a natural one when making a shooting attack, the gun is out of ammunition. I rationalize this as possibly also meaning badly jammed. Only one of the three firearms carrying survivors has extra ammo, too. So, if you are planning on manning a barricade and mowing down zombie after zombie to cover for your friends, your plan can fall victim to a poorly-timed "1"! In most of our games, this has led to the death of that unlucky survivor.

    Sonny confidently holds off a group of zombies until rolling a "1" -- CLICK! Out of ammo!!

With the success of my games at Hold the Line, I am satisfied that giving each character two skills instead of one special ability in the original rules does not make them too powerful. The brand new skills I added (such as Sprinter, giving an extra 1" of movement for each action), did not seem unbalancing either. The rules author had also given me his ideas of introducing three attributes (Might, Brains, Quickness) for each character. He wanted to use them to be used for various checks in the game. For example, when survivors come to a door, there is a 50/50 chance it is locked. If locked, they need to pass a successful "Might Check" to force it open. The character adds their Might score (which is between 1 and 3) to the roll of a dice, needing a "6+" to successfully force it open. If they fail, they can try again next action. Notably, this does make more noise...

    Sonny tried to run, but when the zombies made contact and knocked him down, the end was near

Since characters are still scrambling to complete the missions successfully in our games, I think the balance has not been thrown off by these additions. Next, I plan to introduce my experience points ideas. I'll have the Sunday night gang choose to spend the experience they gained when we played it a few weeks back (see Zombie RV Times Three). Then we will play some more games. I plan to keep track of how many "skill improvements" each survivor gang has earned and either add in more zombies or modifiers to the spawn roll each turn to balance it out. That will probably be a judgement call based on how successful the players have been.

    After a handful of turns, the entire board seems to be crawling with zombies

The other thing I have planned is to try one big game with up to three vehicles of survivors rather than each band of four on their own 2'x2' board. I would like to go with a 3'x3' or 3'x4' board. I will include one spawn point for each vehicle's (4 characters) worth of survivors. I am also thinking that instead of a third spawn point, perhaps have zombies show up randomly on board edges? I would number the board edges and roll to have three lone, wandering zombies show up. Or perhaps I will randomize the number of wandering zombies? Roll 1d6: 1-2 = 3 zombies, 3-4 = 4 zombies, 5-6 = 5 zombies. One roll would establish which board edge they're coming in on, and then a D12 to see how many inches from that corner it arrives on. I think this would definitely foul up the survivors' plans more with the uncertainty of where they're coming from.

    You can also find other survivors in hiding on the board, as was the case with Woody in red

Plus, I always enjoy miniatures games where we get the whole group playing together. I am imagine there would a be a lot of hilarity as we laugh at the struggles (or poor die rolls) of our fellow players! So, while my painting for the zombie project is coming to an end, the playing of games is hopefully heating up! Stay tuned for more highlights from my zombie apocalypse!

    His friend inside searching the trailer, Sonny covers him from the porch, blasting away at zombies

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 170
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 154

 

Drawn by the noise of tires squealing and the crunch of a van hitting bodies, zombies hurry forward 

    Despite 2 zombies in contact, Junior was fortunate on his rolls and was able to slip away and survive