Zombie Mayhem as Convoy Passes through Mechanicsburg

    The center of the 5'x3' board, with creek, bridge, and cluster of buildings on the outskirts of town

After cooperating on a couple supply runs, several small groups of survivors met in a safe spot to make plans. They agreed that there is strength in numbers, and that they should all stick together for safety. Several argued that when it comes to the zombies, numbers is the problem. Specifically, Ohio and the Midwest's relatively dense population. They should get out of town and head West to "Big Sky" country...Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana -- wherever. Anywhere that there was fewer people meant fewer to have turned into zombies. And so they packed up their supplies and belongings, and the convoy from Columbus set out.

    Small group of buildings standing in for Mechanicsburg - the first town the convoy passes through

Sticking to the side roads and avoiding the often blocked and zombie-infested highways, the convoy made their first stop just outside of Mechanicsburg, OH. Many of the survivors didn't even have firearms yet, and they were running low on food, again. An intersection near a small creek seemed a likely spot to circle the vehicles and take a handful of people in for a quick run. Hopefully, things would turn out better than at the creepy farmhouses near the cornfields, when they'd lost nearly a quarter of their group!

    Sunday evening gaming group did a much better job cooperating in this mission of Zombie RV

It was time to stage another game of Zombie RV for our Sunday evening gaming group. I urged all of the players to spend the Experience Points (XP) they'd accumulated from the last two missions. Most did so, hopefully beefing up their characters' effectiveness. The 5'x3' board would have two zombie spawning points -- a hotel amidst a small cluster of buildings in town and a graveyard (of course!) across the river in the outskirts near the trailer park. Since there would be 12 survivors, I would also need a third spawning point. I decided to repeat what I did last time and have the zombies from the third spawn point show up on random board edges. Interestingly, the random arrivals often showed up very near where survivors were, complicating their situations nicely.

    The trailer park end of the board, with the graveyard spawning point at the top of the picture

The players decided to drive on board in four vehicles to maximize the number of "safe spots" to return to and exit the tabletop. Keith and Tom's survivors arrived in the group's RV, pulling off the dirt road into the driveway leading to the trailer park. Allen and Joel's van showed on the opposite board edge, not far from the two-story apartment building. Jenny and Mike stopped each of their vehicles on the street running behind the hotel at two widely spaced places. All twelve survivors quietly exited their vehicles, gripped their weapons, and headed out into danger.

    As Fredrik gets ready to enter one of the trailers, the zombies spot him and begin to surge forward

Keith's survivors Junior and Roman darted out of the RV and into the trailer park's dilapidated, stone office building. Tom's duo ran past them, splitting up, with Fredrik headed towards one of the trailers and Mophius shouldering his shotgun and beginning to climb the water tower. The cluster of zombies outside the graveyard spotted Fredrik, and began shambling towards him. 

    It doesn't take long before zombies spot Earle and hungrily begin to chase him across the board

Joel and Allen's van pulled up alongside a wrecked SUV that looked promising, as its back seat appeared to be stuffed with boxes and sacks. Big Bass and Benny combined to pop open one of the doors and search through the stuff inside. They secured a well-stocked First Aid kit for their efforts. Earle ran past them while they were searching, towards the center of the board, pausing by a dented red sedan. Jimmy hung close to Big Bass and Benny, covering them with his pistol. The cluster of zombies milling outside the hotel spotted Earle as the darted past and began to stagger slowly towards him.

    Daisy, at right, finds a cache of supplies that someone had to abandon on the balcony of the hotel

Jenny's two survivors exited their silver sedan and investigated the shipping truck flipped over in the road. Jackie and Curly combined their efforts to wrench open the back doors, with Curly hopping inside to investigate. He tossed some useful supplies from the truck's load into his backpack. Meanwhile, Coop and Daisy pulled not far from the refugee car -- or at least that's what they called it, with all of the stuff piled onto its roof! Coop began rifling through the abandoned belongings, looking for useful items. Meanwhile, Daisy bravely tip-toed up the stairway to the hotel. She'd spotted a bundle of items at the top of the stairs. Someone had obviously collected things together to leave hurriedly, then had to leave them there for some reason. Considering the number of zombies pouring out of the hotel, Daisy could guess what had interrupted them!

    Coop & Daisy took advantage of their friends' distraction of the zombies to net 3 caches of supplies

The players alternated who would roll for the number (and type) of zombies appearing at the spawn points. In general, their rolls were excellent. Perhaps three quarters of the rolls were a 1, 2, or 3 on 1d6, spawning the minimum 3 ordinary zombies. In the entire game (8 turns, perhaps? I didn't keep track), only two "Fast" zombies were spawned, and a couple "Nasty" zombies. Joel played a clever game using Earle as a "rabbit," essentially, luring the zombies one way and then another. In Zombie RV rules, the zombies generally go after those in sight and making the most noise. Joel would run one direction in his first action, and then fire off a shot to draw the zombies towards him. The next turn, he would run for both his actions ending out of sight, and the zombies would meander off towards another survivor making noise. The following turn, Earle would lead them back another direction, running and firing. Although he never killed a zombie, his actions were very valuable to his teammates, as he kept the zombies busy and allowing them time to find the supplies.

    Junior (actually inside - not on the roof) blasts away at zombies coming from the graveyard

In the trailer park, Junior stuck his head out the window and blasted away twice at the zombies chasing Fredrik, killing quite a few. This allowed Fredrik to creep into the trailer and hide, out of sight, behind some furniture. When the zombies instead streamed towards the office, Roman braced himself against the door to prevent them from bursting through. Meanwhile, after climbing to the platform halfway up the water tower, Mophius discovered his shotgun didn't have enough range to really do a good job of picking off zombies. He sighed and began to descend. Once the zombies were fully focused on Junior firing out the window, Fredrik stood up and began searching the trailer. He found another survivor, Moe, terrified, and hiding in one of the closets. He motioned him to follow him. One of the things players can find in a cache is more survivors. For some reason with the Sunday evening group, it comes up regularly more regularly than it should! Fredrik and Moe snuck out of the one trailer and dashed across the yard to the second trailer.

    Big Bass and Benny face off against a group of zombies in the alley way near the apartments

Meanwhile, Big Bass and his crew hurried across the street to the apartment building. Benny was the first through the door and began a thorough search. Once again, they found a terrified survivor hiding in one of the rooms. He was named C.J., and confirmed there was nothing much of value left in the apartment building. C.J. was very eager to join Benny's group rather than hiding out alone. Outside, they could hear both Big Bass and Jimmy firing at the zombies who'd began shuffling towards the apartment building. C.J. motioned to the back door, and the duo ducked out, only to find themselves being converged upon by zombies coming up the alley and from the hotel.

    Coop & Daisy begin firing on zombies streaming towards Allen's characters to draw them away

This began probably the most dangerous fight for the survivors as Big Bass, Benny, and C.J. fought hand-to-hand against numerous zombies. Jimmy hung on the periphery, remaining out of the range of zombie charges and firing ineffectively at them. Both Benny and Big Bass were wounded. C.J. proved a tough new addition, though. Twice he was hit by zombie attacks and twice he passed his "Grit Check" to shrug off the damage (needing a "6" on 1d6!). As more zombies converged on Allen and Joel's crew, Mike S moved a bit closer to help out. His rifleman Coop began firing, picking off zombies, and making enough noise to draw the zombie reinforcements towards him instead of Allen's hard-pressed trio. This was key, and doubtless just as responsible for their survival as Allen's good dice rolling!

    Zombies spawning at the graveyard, left, pour after Earle, firing from the far end of the bridge

On a quieter section of the board, Jackie and Curly waded the creek and crept as silently as they could past the graveyard. They tried to stay crouched behind the walls and out of the zombie's sight. Back at the trailer park office, Junior had run out of ammo at the office. He was instead bashing zombies trying to crawl through the window one at a time. He was also shouting to keep their attention. Roman kept bracing against a Nasty Zombie that was trying to batter down the door, muttering to himself, "Hold the door! Hold the door!" Mophius was trying to remain inconspicuous, staying out of sight of the mob near the office door and blasting with his shotgun at the wandering zombies that showed up all too frequently (for him) in his sector of the board. Eventually, he joined up with Fredrik and Moe as they finished searching the second trailer.

    Jackie blasts away at zombies honing in on her from the porch of a trailer

By then, Jackie had scurried up onto the porch of the third trailer and fired at the recently-spawned zombies that were now filtering towards her and Curly. Earle helped her out, too, by dashing onto the bridge, and firing to draw the attention of more zombies -- especially the dangerous Fast Zombie that had appeared. Earle then scampered off as half the zombies streamed towards him. Jackie and Curly entered the trailer, with Curly bracing himself to keep out the half dozen zombies hot on their heels. After a quick search, Jackie was dismayed to see there was no back door. They were trapped! Curly pointed to a pull down ladder in the hallway, doubtless leading to the roof. Once Jackie found some supplies, they both agreed it was time to get out of the trailer park! They felt the safest way was climbing onto the roof.

    Benny & Big Bass are both still standing and battling zombies, but are going to need to run soon

Allen's trio of brawlers had also decided it was time to go. The supply of new zombies staggering out of the hotel and towards them seemed never to let up (it doesn't in Zombie RV!). The sight of a huge, red-coated Nasty Zombie closing in doubtless help convince them that the game was up. All three sprinted for the van. Jimmy was already in the driver's seat, gunning the engine to let them know he was ready, too. Through the alley way, Coop and Daisy had decided it was time to go, too. Daisy picked off the wandering zombies who showed up with her pistol and dashed for the driver's seat. She tapped the horn to let Coop know she was ready, and he sprinted towards the car, opening the door and diving into the back seat. Daisy punched it, knocking aside a zombie and accelerating down the street.

    Earle spent nearly the entire game playing 'rabbit' and luring the zombies one way and then another

Back at the trailer park office, both Junior and Roman agreed they needed to get back to the RV. They jumped up onto a desk and crawled out the back window. A wandering zombie showed up right at that moment, but Roman split its skull with his axe. As they ran towards the RV door, they noticed Mophius, Fredrik, and a new guy (Moe) doing the same thing. All five piled through the door at about the same time that Jackie, leaping off the trailer roof, sprinted across the dirt road and dove into the driver's seat of the RV. She rolled the window down and blasted away to cover Curley He did not land his leap to the ground as well as she had, twisting his ankle badly. Luckily, the zombies were drawn to Jackie's gunfire and ignored her hobbled friend. As more and more zombies clustered around the RV, Jackie saw Curley shake his head and point back the way they'd originally come. He'd try to quietly limp over there, and join up with them away from the zombies. There was no way he could get through the mob.

    Zombies swarm the RV, with Jackie in the driver's seat blasting away to lure them away from Curley

As the vehicles peeled out and exited the way they'd come, Earle trotted over to Jackie and Curley's vehicle. He grabbed the keys from the console, started it up, and roared out after his friends. As far as he could tell, everyone had made it out alive. This was so much better an outcome than at the creepy farms where they'd almost lost Big Bass, and had lost Wrich, Red, and more!

    Big Bass and C.J. run back towards their blue van with a Nasty Zombie hot on their heels!

The players were very fortunate this game in not losing any of their crew. Consistently low spawning rolls and excellent die rolling by Allen (again!) meant they survived the one big melee that could have gone bad for them. They also showed better teamwork in this game. Joel helped out both sides of the table with Earle's fleet feet and noisy rifle. Mike S's Coop and Daisy intervened and diverted overwhelming zombie reinforcements from Allen's three survivors that were trying to brawl their way out of trouble. Keith's Junior and Roman kept the attention of the zombies long enough to allow Tom to find the supplies in the trailers. The crew from Columbus was on their way west with lots of looted medicine, some supplies, and even a new weapon or two. It's a long way to Wyoming, though, and the convoy will doubtless face many more dangers on the road. Stay tuned for more adventures with Zombie RV!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

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• Miniatures painted in 2024: 0

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 1