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

'Nasty Zombies' Plus Another Batch of 10

    2 'Nasty zombies' lead a pack of Wargames Factory zombies prowling through the industrial district

I think I am nearing the end of my zombie painting spree. These two batches should enable me to run Zombie RV for three vehicle crews (12 survivors). That will probably be about as big of a game as I need to run anytime soon. Since the rules have three tiers of zombies, with "Nasty Zombies" being the meanest, I figure I needed more of them. I dug through my Post-Apocalyptic unpainted lead and picked out four that could be painted into zombies, I felt. I also did the next-to-last batch of male zombies from the Wargames Factory box.

    Five of this batch of Wargames Factory zombies - do they sense survivors inside the factory?

The 10 ordinary zombies were done exactly like the others I've been doing (for what seems like quite awhile, now!). So, I won't really talk much about them. I am trying to personalize a handful in each batch. I did some tattoos on the shirtless zombies. I think they look better in person than in the photos. I also tried to put writing on their shirts or lab coats, which I think turned out fairly poorly, unfortunately. I think I was in a hurry because I also forgot to bricks or other debris on their bases. I didn't notice it until I was putting them away.

    Two of the 'Nasty zombies' -- one an OSU fan and the punk rocker...a gamer?

Speaking of which, it IS quite the zombie horde I'm accumulating. And the mass effect of them all together in the box looks really good, I think. Hopefully, they look equally good horded together on the tabletop! Well, maybe not to the survivors, but visually...!

    The other two 'Nasty zombies' leading their pack of five to investigate a downed helicopter

Unlike most metal figures, I did prime these black to go with the same overall look as the rest of the zombies. I made sure when painting the pants and shirts to leave a bit of black around the exposed flesh where their clothes are torn and they've been slashed or shot. I would need the zombie aspect of these to jump out more to the eye, so I painted lots of tears, blood stains, and such. Two of the zombies have punk rock style haircuts or goatees. I decided to have a little fun and paint one of them like a friend of mine. We'll see if he notices that he's been "immortalized" as a zombie. The lettering on the jacket and mohawk color should be a giveaway, if you know him.

    The nasty with the red mohawk and goatee is probably my favorite of the bunch!

The other one has a very bright punk rocker red mohawk and goatee. He's probably my favorite nasty zombie of the group. I think his brown leather jacket, blue jeans, and. bright green shirt worked out nicely together. The one next to him above is from Battle Valor Games and their "Space Cannibals" line. He has improvised armor that apparently didn't work out to well for him against the zombies!

    The hand-lettered lab coat and lawn worker shirts were a 'fail,' I think -- less is more in this case!

I have to admit, I am actually looking forward to wrapping up the zombie painting. They've all painted up quickly and turned out fairly well. I'm just getting a little tired of painting nearly the same thing over and over. You may have noticed the nasty zombies have brighter, brick base texturing. I'm not 100% sure it worked out great. However, I admit, it is more of a game mechanic so players can easily recognize the nasty zombies vs. the regular zombies. The styrene plastic pattern isn't grooved very deeply, so I added a couple tiny bricks atop the metal base the figure is cast onto. It looks so-so. I should probably have done the entire base in those tiny bricks. That would have looked better, I think.

I'm working my way back towards a positive total for my painted vs. acquired tally. I would say I will even it up within a couple weeks. I have that final batch of 10 zombies (sigh...) and two painted warlord stands to do for the Advance the Colors 2024 Saga tournament. That'll put me at 170 vs. 170, most likely!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

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

Fortified Trailers for Post-Apocalypse from Bad Goblin Games

    The first of the two fortified trailers with some of my survivors keeping watch

My favorite "find" at Historicon were the products from Bad Goblin Games. Even before I played in their Trailer Park Apocalypse game on Saturday, I had snapped up two of their 3-D printed, fortified trailers. They had six different varieties. I purchased my two favorites (#1 and #6 on their packaging). I wanted to use them in my Zombie RV games at the upcoming Hold the Line convention in Port Clinton, Sept. 13-14. So, it was time to put work on the horde of zombies on hold and get cracking on "them thar trailers!"

    The rear of the trailer - note the gaping hole and the cracks...this trailer has seen some battles!

They were incredibly easy to prepare for painting. I saw no flash or strings or anything that I needed to clean up. If I were to do another one, though (check that -- when I do another!), I would shave some material off the top, bottom, and side of the doors. They open and closes easily until you prime and paint them, and or in my case, put patterned paper down as the flooring. All those layers of paint and paper add to the thickness, so to speak, and I would rather it not scratch it every time I opened or closed it in a game. This is an incredibly minor point, though. I am very happy with these models.

    Roof of the first trailer. All of the fortifications are part of the 3-D print -- none of this was modified

I cut a piece of 9"x5" plastic styrene to base each trailer on and used two-part epoxy to attach them. I did my usual method of prepping -- spray painting it first with Krylon Fusion Acrylic Black Primer, and then following that up with a 50/50 mix of water and acrylic black paint. For the base coats of the colors, I had to apply two coats to get it to cover over the black undercoat, though. For the first one, above, I used a light straw color and then did a white dry brush over it. Next, I painted the brick a dark red and dry brushed it Howard Hues Middle East Flesh. I used a light Terra Cotta color for the trim to keep it in the same color tone. I dry brushed the trim pieces tan. The door was painted a dark red with window frame.

   Zooming in on the first trailer -- I did a heavy black wash over the surface once it was all painted

The roof was painted Georgia Clay, then dry brushed with Middle East Flesh. All of the woodwork was painted dark brown first, dry brushed Camo Brown, and then tan. I thought it was cool how they added street signs into the fortifications, too. So I painted them up to as "STOP" and "YIELD" signs, with appropriate gouges in them. The oil barrels were painted a light blue, dry brushed a bluish-white, and then I made them rusty with several colors: light brown, Georgia Clay, and then bright orange. 

The interior was purposely done in what I felt would be tacky, "trailer park" colors. For this one, I chose a light salmon color. Once again, I needed two coats to cover the walls sufficiently. However, with all of the explosion or fire damage on this model, I did a lot of black dry brushing to simulate smoke stains or fire damage. For the floor, I used patterned scrapbook paper from Hobby Lobby left over from an earlier project. It is a light gray, which I dirtied up a bit with black dry brushing to simulate smoke and dirt accumulation since the apocalypse.

    The floor is patterned scrapbooking paper dirtied up with black dry brushing

I admit I was definitely going for an Appalachian vibe in my decorations for the walls. There are pictures making strident statements about gun rights. There is a hunting painting. And, since you-know-who seems to be very popular in Appalachia, there is a political poster honoring their leadership choice. For these, I simply did Google Image searches, downloaded suitable files, and resized them, gave them a reddish brown border for a "picture frame," and printed them off on a laser printer at the local office supply store. I cut them out, painted white glue onto the backs of them, and applied them to the walls. 

    Another look at the trailer without any miniatures to clutter up the picture. The couches are my own.

I gave the trailer a couple coats of clear matte spray. I did have to go back and add a black wash over the warning signs on the doors, too. They looked too bright white without it, I felt. Note in the photographs, I posed some couches, love seats, and recliners sitting outside and look worse for the wear (in true hillbilly fashion). These are my own and were not included. A friend of mine molded them in dental plaster -- not sure where he got them from (maybe Hirst Arts?).

    The front of the "blue" fortified trailer, with its bullet holes, rounded end, and cinder block stairs

One of the things that I really liked shopping at Bad Goblin Games booth at Historicon was the sheer variety. If I remember correctly, there were six varieties of fortified trailers and just about that many of ruined or partially ruined trailers. It allowed me to pick out the ones I liked best and were different from each other. If you go to their website, I'm not sure why they are not showing up, yet. Maybe they don't want to put them up there until the convention season is over and they've built back on their stock. By the end of Saturday at the convention, their shelves and racks were looking pretty sparse. I wasn't the only one who was buying up their stuff (which is very affordably priced, by the way)! Another thing I liked was the choices they give in staircases leading up to the doors. They give you both the wooden one shown in the yellow trailer, and the cinder blocks in the blue one, above.

    The rear of the trailer, which has two doors, allowing me to use both types of staircases on this model

I used a pale blue for the exterior of this one, dry brushing it a light, bluish-white. The trim was done in a Denim Blue craft paint, also dry brushed to give it a worn and sun-bleached look. For the roof, I decided to go with a light gray-green, dry brushed a very light gray. I love the wooden boards covering the windows and the crack in the walls. As with the previous one, I did a black wash on the exterior to make it look dirty, run-down, and possibly abandoned.

    A look at the roof of the blue trailer, which is a completely different style than the first one

Not only is the vinyl siding pattern different on this model than the first, the roof is completely different, too. Rather than a ribbed, almost corrugated steel look, this one looks more lilke siding. Instead of the sandbags and wood barricades atop the roof, this one used piles of cinder blocks. Apparently, Bad Goblin Games also sells bags of 3-D printed cinder blocks, but they were so popular they were sold out by the time I made it to their booth! I love the tire, open hatch, and random cinder blocks that come printed on the roof. These would normally be a customization done by the modeler, but Bad Goblin does it for you! This saves tons of time compared to my MDF trailer from Sarissa Precision, which I spent hours and hours modifying!

    A good look at the posters I put up on the walls of my trailer -- "America" & "Dogs playing poker"!

Really, the only thing I tricked out on these two models is the interior. My choice of tacky colors were blue and green for this one. I painted the walls a medium "Leaf Green". Next, I dry brushed it a lighter green, and finally went over it in a dark, black wash. The interior door was painted dark green. For the flooring, I cut more of the patterned paper you can find at craft stores (I think they are intended for scrap booking). For this one, I also did a black wash on the flooring after I had glued it in place and done a first spray clear coat. Big mistake! After a few minutes, the water began to warp the paper. I took a paint bottle and smooshed it down (technical term). Then, when it was drier, I smoothed it down with my fingers. It looked better. Unfortunately, the black washing of the surface was left a little streaky. In the future, I will follow the method I used on the yellow trailer, above.

    A look at the interior, with the ugly leaf green walls clashing with the blue and white flooring

For interior decorations, I kept up the tacky, hillbilly kitsch. The famous painting of dogs sitting around a table playing poker had to be in there. An "America - love it or leave it" belonged in there for that well-known, rural patriotism. I also threw in a hunting painting and a Jesus one. I have gone back and forth about furniture on the interior, and have pretty much decided not to do it. I want my terrain pieces to look good, yes. However, I want the miniatures to be able to move around inside, as well. 

    A close up of the blue trailer, including the classic door sign warning away trespassers!

These two post-apocalyptic trailers will see playing time in about a week when I run Zombie RV at Hold the Line in Port Clinton, OH. I have other things from them that I need to paint up and get ready for games, too. The tall water tower will be an eye catcher on the tabletop, as will the dumpster fire and other fun pieces using LED lights. Stay tuned to my blog for those!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 168
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 140

Trip North to Blissfield to Game with Jim & Ted

    Saturday's game at Jim's 'Toy Box' was a scenario set in a post-apoc Ohio/Michigan 'exclusion zone'

It has become a summer tradition. Gather a group from Central Ohio and drive north to my friend Jim's "Toy Box" in Blissfield, MI, for a weekend of gaming. Awhile back, Jim was given a deal he couldn't pass up on a lawyer's building in the center of his tiny town of 3,000 people. It came with all the furniture and would be a perfect place within walking distance of home to store all his stuff, do his painting and modeling, and host games. 

    A stop by the Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company was a fun shopping experience!

This year, five of us drove north on Friday to enjoy good times and camaraderie in small village Midwest. I had been wanting for years to visit the Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company not too far away in Detroit. I convinced the others to stop on the way up, and it was definitely a great place to shop. I ended up "winning" the shopping wars, edging out Keith by less than $10. Most of my $150+ purchases were from Hydra Miniatures' Retro Raygun line. As the name implies, these are retro or nostalgic looking Sci-Fi miniatures with a wonderfully unique look. 

   Pictures from Hydra Miniatures' website of the Robot Legionnaire command pack I bought

I purchased two packs of five "Robot Legionnaires" to use for my various Sci-Fi games. They could be a units in a Xenos Rampant game, enemies for my Five Parsecs from Home crew, or just about anything else Sci-Fi. The pictures I'm posting are from their website. I obviously haven't had time to paint these up, yet! Plus, the paint jobs are likely from Dr. Matthias of the Lead Adventure Forum -- one of my favorite painters. If you want to see some amazing paint jobs, check out his web page! 

    Three bots or droids from the Hydra Miniatures line that I picked up at Michigan Toy Soldier store

In addition, I picked up some droids or robots they have as part of the line. I had been looking for non-military, unarmed droids for my Sci-Fi skirmishes, and hadn't thought to check their line. As I was digging through the blister packs, though, I found several that I could use. I picked up two each of Simon 6 and Blocko the Squarebot" (got to love the name!), as well as a pack of five Hoverbots. Once again, the pictures above are from Hydra Miniatures' website. 

    My purchases Friday (including a die cast pizza truck from Kroger to be converted into a RV maybe)

I also picked up some grass tufts I needed for bases, a bottle of Vallejo vehicle wash, and a copy of the Rebels and Patriots rules that we've been using for Keith's Revolutionary War games. Earlier that day, while at Kroger, I'd also picked up a die cast pizza food truck which I can hopefully convert into a RV for Zombie RV.

    The battle around Ted's 15mm scale Alamo rages in earnest as the Mexicans move towards the walls

Next, we drove to Blissfield to meet the gang for dinner. Since we were going to be play testing Ted's Remember the Alamo game this October 11-12 at Advance the Colors 2024, we appropriately had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in town. That should have given me a clue to choose to play on the Mexican side, but unfortunately I chose the Texans (Texicans?). Ted is upfront about his game. The Mexicans are going to "win." All who don't run off will be killed. The only way for the defenders to win at the Alamo is to inflict enough casualties to make it a far too Pyrrhic victory for General Santa Ana. The Mexican players, on the other hand, are trying to curry the general's favor by killing or capturing the most Texan leaders and flags positioned at various points around the fort. So, I went in knowing I was going to lose. I should also have resigned myself to bad die rolling, too!

    Jim's Mexicans swarm up the ladders while the number of my defenders along the wall dwindles

Ted's Alamo in 15mm is awesome! If you can come to ATC 2024 in Springfield, OH, to play in his game, I would highly recommend it. Hundreds of 15mm Mexicans in various color uniforms and Texan defenders make for a great spectacle. The rules work very well and are quick and easy to learn. There were a few places during the game where my Mexican opponent Jim and I had questions, but they were far between. Defending the mission alongside me were Mike S and Jenny, who were both making their second Blissfield trip. Besides Jim, the attackers were Gene, Keith, and Jason S, who drove up after he got off work. Mike and Jenny did a decent job causing losses among the Mexican attackers. However, I was abysmal at my die rolling. I would roll a dozen six-side dice, needing 4's or better to hit, and score just 2 or 3 hits routinely. On the other hand, Jim is renowned in his gaming group for his lights-out die rolling. It was an uneven matchup, and my side of the mission went down with a whimper.

    Jenny's Tennesseans, led by Davey Crockett, holding off the Mexican attack early on in the game

Everyone had a good time. I felt bad I almost single-handedly caused our side to lose. Mike S inflicted quite a few casualties against Keith and Jason's troops, but I certainly did not hold up my side of the bargain. If I had equaled his successes, we would have had a chance. It is definitely a different mindset playing in a game where you know your forces will be eliminated. I don't think I minded that part -- Ted warned us at the beginning. What bothered me was my die rolling was so pathetic it almost became a joke. So, if you play the Texans at the Alamo, be sure to bring your hot dice! Either way, you'll be in for a good time with lots of laughs. The climax of the game came when Jenny was down to Davey Crockett and a few Tennessean companions. She decided to have him drop down from the walls and make a run for the river. She rolled the absolute worst she could for his landing, and Crockett suffered an ignominious death, bayoneted while he lay on the ground with two broken legs!

    Jenny's Michigan National Guard unit sets a road block at the intersection and defends it zealously!

We were right back at it on Saturday morning, rolling dice again. I'd requested Jim to run a scenario of his post-apocalyptic campaign for us. Normally, he has just 2-3 players, so I appreciated him cooking up a bigger scenario than he's used to running. Jim uses the Wiley Games rules, but with a dose of Zona Alfa thrown in. His "exclusion zone" (think Chernobyl) is based off of an actual nearby nuclear facility. In his campaign, there has been an "incident" and the area is blocked off from the public and patrolled by various government agencies. Well...supposed to be blocked off! The Zona Alfa concept is players are crossing into the zone on behalf of various employers or looking for valuable equipment and artifacts.

    Much to their surprise, the road block includes Mike S's police cruisers! 'No one' means nobody!!

Interestingly, Jim had picked an actual location near the nuclear facility from Google Maps and recreated the terrain on the tabletop. The miniature version of the intersection of the county and state routes resembled it in a very skillful and realistic way. I was playing a crew of four from an unnamed government agency driving in a black SUV (of course). My goal was to investigate reports of "lizardmen" in the zone, and if possible, bring one back alive or dead to study. I wasn't friends or enemies with any of the other five factions played by Jenny, Ted, Mike S, Jason, or Keith. In fact, my briefing said I was fairly "dismissive" of them! Jenny was a Michigan National Guard unit rotating in to keep trespassers out of the zone. Ted's group was another army unit taking on a semi-independent role exploring the exclusion zone. Mike S was the local police in two patrol cars. Jason was the "Cold Ones" -- Eastern Europeans who have been mutated by their forays into other exclusion zones and show up to loot them. And speaking of Looters, Keith was simply local looters hoping to score some stuff and make some money.

    A patrol cars spots a looter exiting the window of a home and sets off a game-long gun battle

The action began when Keith's looters were accosted by the zealous local law enforcement, who saw one of Keith's guys suspiciously exit a home via the window. The two would engage in a running gun battle which saw none of Mike's officers or Keith's looters actually get knocked out of action! Shooting was very Hollywood style (LOTS of misses!). Meanwhile, my government SUV passed them by and parked in a driveway between two patches of woods. Two of my agents got out to investigate each patch of woods. We were looking for Lizardmen, and animals live in the woods, right? What we found was not what we were looking for, as an "anomaly" sent a massive heat blast scorching its way across the board. Apparently, these happen frequently enough in the exclusion zone that we'd been warned about it in our briefings. Of course, it happened right after my four guys exited the air-conditioned SUV! The agent nearest the anomaly was knocked out of action, two others were wounded, and the leader momentarily stunned. Similar effects happened to everyone else on the board not inside an air-conditioned vehicle (or not a Cold One -- Jason's guys were apparently immune).

    My federal agents bypass the looters and pull up in a driveway to investigate two patches of woods

The wounded agent spent several turns dragging the unconscious one back to the SUV, plopping him in the back seat, and getting back behind the wheel. Meanwhile, my leader and his pal explored the other woods, finding nothing. My leader, skeptical from the beginning about "lizardmen," began to think that a giant game of "telephone" had taken place at his agency. You know the game, right? Someone at one part of a circle whispers something to his neighbor, who is supposed to repeat it to the next in line. By the time it makes its way back around to the original one, the message is unrecognizable. Hmmm. "Cold Ones?" Lizards are cold blooded. Maybe I am supposed to capture one of Jason's Cold Ones? That became my leader's new goal as he worked his way through the woods.

    My leader and another agent begin a trek through the woods to the opposite side of the table

Incidentally, in the Wiley Games rules, you can heal wounds/stun with a Queen of Hearts/Spades, or any Ace which you play and declare as one of those cards. Jim even included a Joker in this deck, which also acted as an Ace. On the very first turn of the game, I was given two Aces. For the next 11 turns, not only did I not receive a queen, I also did not receive an Ace in the four cards I was given each turn. That's 44 cards out of the deck of 53 with no Queen or Ace! Needless to say, it appeared that my luck was continuing from last night!

    Lizardmen? On the Ohio-Michigan border?? This comes as a surprise to these hapless civilians

Of course, no one was paying attention to my skulking around by this point. Jenny had decided to enforce her road block in the center of the table zealously and enthusiastically. When anyone tried to pass -- including local law enforcement or fellow soldiers (Ted's faction) -- she blasted away at them, disabling their vehicles. This began a running gun battle between the rival U.S. Army soldiers and anyone else that decided to join in. Meanwhile, Keith and the local cops were continuing to fire away at each other ineffectually. Jason's Cold Ones on the far edge of the board shot a young, hoodie-wearing man when they spied him through the window. No questions -- just shoot first! Eastern Europeans!! When they went into the room to ask him where they might find artifacts, the man was unsurprisingly uncooperative. In fact, it took three of the Cold Ones several turns till the wounded local was knocked out. 

    Lizardmen stalk towards the gun battle between the army units, leaving an unconscious one behind

About this time, Jim made a decision. He may have noticed me shaking my head every time I looked at my cards, but he decided it was time for the Lizardmen to make an appearance. REAL lizardmen! The leader of my agents whipped off his sunglasses cinematically and muttered, "I'll be damned...there really ARE lizardmen in here!" He called the wounded agent to bring up the car. He headed towards the house which Jason's Cold Ones were hurriedly vacating at the sight of humanoid lizards carrying guns. The Cold Ones piled into their pickup so fast that they left one of their own behind upstairs. The truck peeled off and headed to the opposite board edge, encountering Mike's two patrol officers afoot (their wheel had been shot off by one of Jenny's trigger-happy guardsmen). Because the local police were being played by his dad, Jason opened up on them -- of course!

    The Cold Bloods in their battered pickup fire upon two local police officers, wounding them

The lizardmen, robbed of their cold-blooded prey, began to track down a civilian vehicle that had unwisely driven onto the tabletop. One chased the car, stuck its head inside the window, and was knocked senseless when the driver floored it and smacked him with the car as it sped away. The other lizardmen were having none of that and chased the car. That led them straight to where the Cold One who'd escaped out the second story window was stalking the soldiers battling each other. The lizardmen proved once and for all that being reptilian beats simply having cold blood, and knocked Jason's unlucky guy out of action. The other lizards smelled blood from the gun battle raging between the two army units and stalked forward, as well.

    Distracted by all the action around the army units, my agents make off with a knocked-out lizardmen

Perhaps the most humorous part of the gun battle for me was Jenny's sergeant firing her turret-mounted .50 caliber machine gun at Ted's guy armed with a grenade launcher. Each was about 10 feet from the other, but as turn after turn went by, neither was knocked out of action. Hmmm. I mused about the feasibility of firing a grenade launcher at someone so close. Jim asked, "Have you fired one?" I had to answer yes, that I indeed had fired an M203 grenade launcher when I was in the military. Still, it is a game, and adjustments are often made to weapon effectiveness by rules writers!

    The board at the end of  the game - most of the action was near the road block in the center

Meanwhile, Jim had done my federal agents a huge favor. The other three lizardmen left their unconscious egg-brother laying in the dirt by the house. My agents crept as quietly through the woods, trying to remain as out of sight as they could. Once they were near the house, my leader darted out, picked up the lizardmen, and drag him off into the trees. He was joined by another agent, and together they carried the creature back to the SUV. They bundled him into the back and got ready to drive off. By the way, this was the final turn of the game. After 11 turns of drought, Jim had dealt me an Ace and a Joker! Still, it helped speed our way back to the vehicle, and make good my agents' escape from the table. Once or twice, Jenny said she'd been tempted to shoot up our SUV with her .50 caliber machine gun. However, since I wasn't bugging her, and Ted's soldiers were actively shooting back, she left me alone.

    Jim smokes a cigar in front of his 'Toy Box' in Blissfield and next to the sign the village installed

So, we decided to call it a game. Although my four agents had fired only once the entire game (long range at a lizardmen), we had accomplished our mission. I was kept entertained by the success and failures (mostly the failures) of my friends as they tried to carry out their missions. We had a more than two hour drive back home to Columbus, so we said our goodbyes and headed out. We enjoyed our two days of fun gaming in Blissfield, and were heading home with loot in the back of Mike's SUV from Michigan Toy Soldier store (but thankfully, no unconscious lizardman!), and lots of stories to recount on the drive home. 

Thanks, Jim, for having us up to your Toy Box, again! As usual, it was a blast!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 168
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 140