Photos from Zombie RV at Buckeye Game Fest

Coop and Big Bass battle zombies in one of my games of Zombie RV at Buckeye Game Fest 2025

I realize that Zombie RV is not a historical miniatures game, of course. However, since the HMGS Great Lakes mission at Buckeye Game Fest 2025 was to entice board gamers to try out a miniatures game or two, I thought Zombie RV would be a perfect fit. I imagine the board game Zombiecide is still popular in the board gaming community, and figured many would see it as an easy jump from cardboard to fully 3-dimensional miniatures battle. Plus, my trailer park looks really nice when all set up. And a nice looking table is a key part of recruiting players to your game, I've found over the years.

    My trailer park setup for BGF 2025 with charcter cards & noise tokens ready at the bottom

Still, neither of the games I ran (Friday night and Saturday morning) went off completely full. I had four players Friday and five on Saturday. Zombie RV scales very easily, though. In the base game, a solo player controls four survivors battling hordes of zombies, which are run by the game's A.I. I've scaled it up to six players controlling two survivors each and it moves fast, providing a tension-filled, thrilling game. So, it was no problem to adjust to less than six players.

    Jackie fires her pistol at several zombies who are pursuing her in one of my ZRV games

In the scenario, the survivors have come upon a trailer park where they spot no movement from a distance. They decide to risk exploring the trailer park because they are short on supplies. Their goal is to scavenge a certain number of supplies. I set that number to equal the number of survivors in the game. Each trailer or building on the tabletop has supplies in it. Survivors can keep searching until they find it, and then it is depleted. 

    "Woops!" While Woody is searching, a spawn roll brings zombies out of a back room into his trailer

A complication is that the "spawn points" (I used two in each game) are random and inside the trailers. Once a building has been searched, though, it can no longer spawn zombies. Instead, they appear in the treeline on the board edge closest to that building. Yes, that means you could move into a building and suddenly have zombies spawn there at the end of the turn! Surprisingly, that happened only once over the course of both games. Woody, that survivor, immediately fled the trailer and decided to look for easier pickings...ha, ha!

    Look at the top of the picture & you can see Coop in the water tower watching over the trailer park

Both games saw the players collecting the necessary number of scavenge tokens. On Friday, they lost poor Coop to a horde of zombies when the survivors were fleeing the field back to their vehicles. I let the players arrive in 1-3 vehicles, which they position in contact with a board edge. Their survivors must exit by one of the vehicles. It does not necessarily have to be the one they arrived on -- just any of their three vehicles. When Coop went down, he and Big Bass had been living dangerously, battling zombies in hand to hand. Coop began the game climbing the ladder to the water tower, firing away at zombies until his rifle jammed. With a horde of zombies waiting for him at the bottom of the ladder (only Fast Zombies & Nasty Zombies can climb, I ruled), he decided to take a risky exit. He leapt from the platform, landing on the wooden outhouse behind one of the container buildings. I told the player to roll a "Quickness (Dexterity) Check," and to roll HIGH. Wouldn't you know it, but she rolled a six on 1d6. High enough, I said!

    Zombies spawn from one of the many doors in my Shanty Town Souk from MBA

In the Saturday game, Mophius was the one swarmed over by zombies and taken down. His partner, Jackie, was in contact with a Fast Zombie at the end of the game, but I ruled that she would have been able to break contact and flee off-table safely. So, each group lost one of their survivors to the ravenous zombie hordes, and might have lost more on Saturday if I played it out to the bitter end. I think the mobile and random spawn points makes for a much more challenging and interesting game. I will likely continue to find a way to use that mechanism in future games. For the trailer park, there were 12 buildings. I simply numbered then 1 to 6 with two different colors of dice (dividing the park into 2'x3' sections, in essence). The players would roll for which trailer spawned the zombies on each half of the board, and how many.

    Things are looking desperate as a horde of zombies trail Big Bass & Coop fleeing back to the vehicles

Everyone seemed to have a good time playing Zombie RV. Nearly all of my players were new to the game, so it was fun to introduce folks to these simple, fast-play rules. I saw a number of players using their phones to scan the QR code I had on my game sign to go to the page on Wargame Vault where you can download them for free. Author David Bezio of Grey Area Games wrote a winner with these rules. I even have written an unofficial campaign supplement that is on RRB Minis & More's website for download, for those interested.

    Sadly, Coop did not make it...wounded, knocked down, and surrounded by a hungry horde!

So, what's on my painting table, now? I have another five U.S. soldiers from the Big Red One in Vietnam in the flocking stages. My first five Viet Cong are next -- probably about halfway done. And a fourth set of five U.S. soldiers is about halfway through. I'm also working on touching up some terrain that I am taking up to Drums at the Rapids next weekend to sell in the flea market there. This includes stone temple ruins pieces, two wooden, provincial gladiator arenas, and other miscellaneous stuff. And yes, that arena comment means I am indeed selling my 28mm gladiators, which you can see here and here. These are nicely painted, so if you're in the area and interested, feel free to show up and snag as many of them as you want. I am selling them $6 each or two for $10. They are excellently sculpted gladiators by Crusader Miniatures, and would look fine augmenting any collection, I think!

    More zombies spawn from a trailer, pouring out of one of the doorways

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 143
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 70 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 19
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 22

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 54
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 57

    Jimmy fights off a Nasty Zombie (brick base) on the porch of my newest trailer before fleeing

    A group of survivors sneak around the trailer park hoping to stay out of sight of the zombies

    Coop ensconced in the water tower with his rifle...what could possibly go wrong...??

    Another good shot of Big Bass & Coop heroically holding off the zombies in melee

 

Sarissa MDF Trailer...Modified (& Some Scatter)Zombie RV: Unemployed? In Greenville..??

    MDF Trailer from Sarissa Precision modified with corrugated siding and large 3-D printed deck

It has been about 2 1/2 years since I finished a heavily-modified Sarissa Precision MDF trailer. Finally, the second one I had purchased at the same time is completed! I modified this one a bit, too -- but not nearly as much as the first -- which you can see here in this post. The first one was meant to represent a survivalist's repaired and reinforced trailer. Individual panels of metal had been "bolted" on, as well as metal bars over the windows. Instead, this new trailer was meant to look like one surfaced with corrugated siding material -- just aged and abandoned. 

    I prefer the plastic patterned material I used over the model's original scored or incised detail

The corrugated material I used for both models is textured plastic. This time, I ended up having to buy it online because the local craft store had stopped carrying it. I prefer corrugated plastic over the incised MDF it comes with because it looks more three dimensional. This time, I also took a big shortcut. Instead of cutting and gluing on individual pieces of the corrugated material, I did each of the four sides as one sheet. Before I constructed the trailer, I took the MDF sides of it and placed them over the plastic material,  tracing its outline, windows and all. I cut it out with a hobby knife and checked to make sure it was as exact a fit as possible. This would end up working out VERY well, and I finished this trailer in less than half the time it took to do the survivalist's one back in 2022. 

    Close up of the L-shaped plastic material I used to "cap" the four corners of the building

Once the corrugated sides were cut and ready, I glued all the MDF pieces of the trailer's model together with Aleene's Tacky Glue. The model goes together very easily, as do most Sarissa Precision kits. I then let it dry overnight. The next day, I epoxied the corrugated plastic onto the four outer sides. It looks better, but you could still see a noticeable gap where each face of the trailer ends and its neighbor on the next side begins. I wanted to cover this up. So, I cut small pieces of "L-shaped" styrene that you can buy from a model train shop to "cap" those seams. This gives it a much smoother appearance. It was tricky for the curved section, requiring about four pieces per edge, instead of one cap for the square ended half of the trailer.

    A look at the MDF roof which I left "as is," except for adding small MDF pieces to cover open slots

At this point, most of the construction was done. I let it dry overnight again. The next morning, I primed the whole structure. Knowing that I was going to paint the exterior siding a dun yellow color, I used a "Camo Sand" spray acrylic paint primer that I had purchased at Menards. Being a lighter color, it would required fewer coats to paint over than if I had primed it black like I usually do for terrain.

    A look at the light green interior & wooden floors - I chose to paint rather than paper both this time

I started the painting by "wet brushing" (think dry brush where you don't wipe off as much paint) my dun yellow color  over the ridged corrugated plastic material. Next, I did a straw yellow colored highlight as a dry brush. I painted the window trim and doors a medium green. It ended up needing two coats to really cover the doors, but not so much with the windows. Finally, I dirtied it up the exterior here and there with splotches and streaks of an Autumn Brown color. At this point, the exterior was done except for the black wash, which would come once the interior was also ready.

    Close up of the interior showing my "hillbilly decor" - posters made from Google Images

The interior I did in a very light green. It also took two coats to smoothly and evenly cover the walls. I did mess up here and there and I had to repaint sections of the medium green in a few places. By using a flat square brush, though, I was able to do a better and more controlled job than I would have with a round one. I need to remember to use the square brush more when I want a large area to be covered smoothly. The floor was next. I decided I would actually use the scored surface incised on the model and not cover it with scrap booking paper like I have for most other trailers. I painted on a dark brown base coat. This was followed by a Camo Brown wet brush. Finally, I did a light highlight of khaki. 

    The clear plastic skylights included in the kit are a nice touch, which I showed off with scatter leaves

With all the coloring done, by and large, it was time for the black wash. Here is where I screwed up the most, I feel. Rather than using a wide, flat, square brush, I used a round one, again. This gives the black wash a very irregular streaky appearance. You would think I would learn after having just noticed how much easier the interior was doing it with a square-tip brush! I ended up having to go back over it and re-apply a light green dry brush to tone down the streaks and darkness of the wash. It was simply too dirty looking!

On the outside, I remember to use a flat wide brush and it ended up looking MUCH better. I was amazed at how much quicker this trailer had gone than the first one. I still had the roof to do, though. I wet brushed the dun yellow that I had used on the trailer, and then used a khaki highlight because it seemed much darker.  Looking at it, I decided I didn't like the unused slots in the roof. There are six open narrow rectangular slots that MDF tabs from the trailer are supposed to fit into. However, the way I put together the trailer (did I make a mistake?), only two of them had corresponding tabs. So, I covered up the other four with spare MDF pieces that I had from other kits to look like hatches or mechanical stuff.

    I used brown splotches and a black wash to "dirty up" the trailer and make it look weathered

I painted both the spare pieces and the area around the two skylights Iron Wind Metals Steel. I highlighted them Pewter, to give it a more 3-D look as the detail was incised onto the MDF, not raised. The kit includes two clear acrylic pieces that I would epoxy onto the underside of the roof for the glass (or plexiglass) skylights. However, I would not affix those until after I had done any clear coating -- I didn't want them to "fog." At this point, I was mostly done with the trailer. 

Now it was time to add the other obvious modification I made to the Sarissa kit. I added a big, 3-D printed, wooden deck I bought from Bad Goblin Games to the long side of the trailer with the door. I wanted to wait until the entire exterior was finished before I glued the deck down, though. Otherwise, painting the exterior portions under the deck would have been a pain! Luckily, the Bad Gobin deck was just about the correct height for the Sarissa trailer. It probably should have been a tad shorter, but I wasn't going to try to saw off exactly the same amount from the eight posts holding up the deck. I primed the deck black, did a Camo Brown wet brush, and Khaki highlight. I also gave it a black wash. 

    Less than a week after being finished, the trailer was used in one of my games of Zombie RV

Now it was time for the posters! When I save an image online for a poster or sign, and then go to print it out for a model, I usually make it in three sizes -- the one I think is right, as well as one slightly bigger and another smaller. I also save my unused posters and signs. So, I dug this folder out and looked through it. I was able to find enough "hillbilly decorations" to put onto the open wall spaces of the interior. I also glued on a No Trespassing sign of sorts on the back of the trailer, too. I thought about putting gluing down some scatter on deck -- chairs, etc. However, I decided to leave them unattached and just sit them on the deck. I picked out four chairs from the one of the Mantic Games scatter boxes (Abandoned Office?) and painted them up. Those are the ones you see in the pictures, above.

    5 pieces of 3-D printed scatter from A Critical Hit and one MDF Outhouse I finished recently

All that was left was the flocking, which I did with my usual method. I painted the base (underneath the deck was the hardest) with a mix of brown paint and white glue. Then I poured in Woodland Scenics Fine Brown Ballast. Once it had dried, I added Blended Turf. Next I added irregularly splotches of Blended Green. For this building, I also added more tufts than I usually do to make it look weedy and overgrown. Finally, I used my tiny bag of leaves that I had bought at ATC 2025 and placed some on the clear plexiglass skylights and in the corners of the deck with white glue. It was done, once again, in about half the time the other Sarissa trailer had taken me. 

    More easy to get onto the tabletop scatter from A Critical Hit -- two 3-D printed picnic tables

I made my deadline, too, as I wanted to use this trailer in Sunday's game of Zombie RV: Unemployed? In Greenville..??. I now have an acceptable looking trailer park with six trailers and at least another half dozen buildings that don't look out of place alongside them. As I finished up the trailer, I was also hurrying up to finish some more modern scatter that have sat in my closet for a year or longer. 

    I bought these from A Critical Hit in 2024 and they've sat in my closet for a year...oops!

The two picnic tables and crates of tomatoes and salt were purchased at Cincycon 2024 from A Critical Hit. It is crazy that 3-D printed pieces that took so little time to get ready for the tabletop just languished in there for a year. For the picnic tables, I simply did a Camo Brown wet brush and Khaki dry brush. That was followed up with a black wash and they were ready (other than a clear matte spray). The crates took a couple more steps. I did the same thing to the wooden slats, but them painted the metal bands Iron Wind Steel. I picked out the bolts with Bronze and then did a black wash over the crate part, but not the produce. I left the salt alone. After clear coating it, I brushed on a clear gloss over the tomatoes.
 

    I *believe* this MDF outhouse is from Sarissa, but am unsure - it has sat unpainted for even longer!

So, if I'm embarrassed that the A Critical Hit pieces sat for so long, I should be mortified by this outhouse. It came with one of my kits -- I believe from Sarissa Precission. Not sure, though, as it has been so long. I assembled it long ago (before I even moved into my new house), and even primed it black. And there it sat, forgotten, but clearly visible on the shelf of my closet containing my unpainted or unassembled terrain and scatter. Literally, all I had to do was a Camo Brown wet brush, Khaki dry brush, and black wash, and it was finally for the tabletop!

    Look! Proof the Outhouse finally made it into a game, as 2 zombies feel an urgent need to "go..."!

What's next? Yesterday, I finished my Colonial Marines from Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps. I photographed them tonight, and you will likely see a post on them tomorrow. I've begun working on the 3-D printed ruins and turn marker that I bought at DayCon 2025 from Sword & Scabbard Games. What about miniatures, you may ask? Well, I think the time has arrived. After finishing this blog post, I plan on sorting through my 28m Vietnam and getting started on my first squad of U.S. Army troopers! The Vietnam project is finally underway!!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 19

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 50

Unemployed..? In Greenville?? Zombie Road Trip Part 2

    Earle and Jimmy pause for a moment as zombies seem to be everywhere in the trailer park!

 

 Unemployed...? In Greenville? - Zombie Road Trip: Part 2

The convoy of survivors had nearly made it to the Indiana state line when they decided they would be better off stopping somewhere to scavenge for more supplies. Near Greenville, they spotted a quiet looking trailer park. No signs of zombies were anywhere, and no people could be seen moving about. This seemed to be their best chance to find some food, gas, medicine, or even weapons. The convoy sent eight ahead in two RVs to investigate and explore, while the rest remained with the other vehicles. The recon group split up, with four approaching from each of the long sides of the trailer park. Things were still quiet, so they exited their vehicles and began to sneak forward.

    A look at my 4'x3' trailer park board complete with half a dozen trailers and a water tower

For this game, I had four players, each controlling two survivors. I was using a 4'x3' board with a dozen buildings in two rows, separated by a dirt road going down the center of the trailer park. A water tower loomed over the center of the board on one edge. Instead of fixed spawning points, as is typical in a game of Zombie RV, I had 12 potential places (each building) for new creatures to spawn each turn. Dividing the trailer park into two halves roughly on line with the water tower, the players would roll a d6 for the which building would be the spawn point on each half of the board. Then they would roll for how many. That way, threats would be coming from both sides of the board, and the players could not "know" where new ones would appear. If a building had already been searched when rolled, the zombies would instead come from the treeline nearest the building. And yes, the zombies could spawn in a building a survivor was currently inside and searching (but not yet found anything). That never happened, though, but fairly quickly, the zombies seemed to be everywhere on the board!

    Players could place their vehicle starting point along any board edge, including along the tree lines

All 12 buildings could potentially have supplies, but the player's mission was to get eight supplies and then get back to their vehicles and escape. I also gave them a chance for each cache of supplies to also include a weapon or extra ammo, if they rolled that. Joel's characters (Earle and Jimmy) teamed up with Mike W's (Reef and C.J.). They began in the center of the side of the board opposite the water tower. Keith's characters (Junior and Roman), with their companions Mike S's Coop and Daisy, began in the shadow of the water tower. Each group of four split into teams of two and sought out a building to investigate.

    C.J. gets ready to check the door of a trailer as Reef covers him, looking out for zombies

Mike W's C.J. ran forward and onto the deck of the trailer with the metal bars over the windows. Just as C.J. reached for the door, he heard a familiar moaning sound from behind him. Three zombies had just spawned from the building behind him and began shuffling towards him. His companion, Reef -- a new guy the convoy had just picked up -- fired at the zombies, killing two. C.J. disappeared inside the trailer and ducked inside one of the rooms, closing the door behind him. He heard Reef continuing to fire, and then begin to curse loudly. "I'm jammed, C.J.! I'm out of here -- heading back to the RV!" Quietly, C.J. cursed the faithlessness of his new companion and peeked out the corner of one of the windows to keep an eye on the zombies. They seemed to be following Reef. That was good news, at least. They seemed to have forgotten he was there.

    Zombies shamble across the dirt road towards Junior on the porch and Coop, in the distance

Not far away, Jimmy and Earle were creeping quietly between a rusted home made from a shipping container and a trailer painted bright pink. They heard the gunfire and flattened themselves against the shipping container building. Slow shuffling footsteps sounded like they were just on the other side of the building, so they crouched in place, hoping not to be noticed. On the opposite side of the board Junior and Roman dashed up onto the wide deck of a large trailer that seemed to be in pretty good shape, other than dirt, trash, and leaves piled up around. Across the little lawn between it and the neighboring, heavily damaged trailer, Coop and Daisy were moving forward to investigate, too. "Check inside," Junior whispered to Roman, "I will cover you from out there." Roman pulled his hoodie up and pushed open the door of the trailer.

    Hearing Reef's gun shots and slow, dragging footsteps, Earle and Jimmy take a moment to hide

Much to my surprise, the player controlling Reef was serious -- his rifle-armed character who'd rolled a "1" (out of ammo) did flee back to the trailer and jump inside, gunning the engine. I let him move the trailer back and forth along the edge of the table, which was really all he did for the rest of the game. He did try to run one zombie down, but only knocked it off its feet. Poor C.J. cowered inside as the zombies circled the trailer where he was hiding. They were drawn by the gunfire of Earle, who would shoot at the group of zombies, then dash off out of their movement range. The tactics of Earle "the Rabbit" would be put to the test as zombies spawned from all around him in this game. As the zombies were distracted, Jimmy ducked inside the container building and began searching.

    Drawn by the sounds of shooting, zombies begin to shuffle towards the survivors

Meanwhile, zombies began to notice Junior standing on the corner of the deck keeping watch, and shuffled towards him. A Fast Zombie led the charge. Once a large group was within range, Junior let off two blasts of his shotgun, killing several and physically hurling others back. More zombies began to converge on Junior, and he continued blasting away until he ran out of ammo. One zombie clambered up onto the deck and clawed at him, but Junior smashed its head with the butt of his shotgun. Hearing his cursing, Roman dashed out onto the deck. "Found some supplies," he said, shoving things into his backpack, and you might want these!" He tossed a belt of shotgun shells to his friend, who snatched it and quickly began to reload as more zombies shuffled into view.

    Coop and Daisy pause after searching a trailer, only to be surprised by zombies arriving nearby

Seeing his distress, Coop began firing at the growing horde of zombies, killing two. Daisy dashed out of the fire-damaged trailer slinging her pack onto her back, "I'm good!" she called, "Let's move!" The two moved towards the water tower just as a trio of zombies emerged from the trees behind them. The trailer Daisy had just searched came up as the spawn point, which meant they arrived in the trees behind it, instead. As the two dashed off, pursued by zombies from both sides of the street, Earle sprinted across the dirt road. He had rolled an extra action, so he stopped at the corner of the building and blasted away with his rifle twice. The zombies redirected and began to converge on Earle. 

    Junior takes a position on the deck of a trailer and blasts away with his shotgun at groups of zombies

Meanwhile, Roman had darted back inside the trailer, planning on ducking out the back door to search Swingle's Schwarma Shack across the street, when the coast was clear. Junior quietly snuck off the porch and crossed the lawn, hoping not to be noticed. Earle's friend Jimmy also ran across the road, firing his pistol. He followed Junior behind the damaged trailer. Zombies followed them both, streaming around both sides of the building. "Damn!" both cursed simultaneously. With nowhere to run, each turned to face the oncoming zombies. Junior's shotgun barked twice, while not far away, Earle's rifle fire cracked out. Zombies fell, but soon Junior and Earle were in hand-to-hand combat with zombies hungering for their flesh. They heard the sound of Coop's rifle and Daisy's pistol, though, as the two fired on the zombie horde. Junior hoped that the gambit would draw the zombies off.

    Coop & Daisy continue their methodical search, cleverly always just out of reach of the zombies

The zombie attacking Junior swung wildly with its claws, but missed. The burly survivor then bashed in the creatures forehead with the butt of its shotgun. As he saw more closing in, he cursed again, and ran for the RV parked nearby. Jimmy quickly followed him into the vehicle, shutting the door behind him. This left Earle alone and in a bit of a lurch. A stream of zombies closed in on him, led by a Fast Zombie clothed in nothing but bright red underwear. Her claws tore through Earle's leather jacket, but the survivor shrugged off the pain. Another zombie closed with him. Earle heard the door of the RV opening and closing, and began edging backwards that way. He battled fiercely, and shoved himself free for a moment of the zombies' flailing arms. When he did, he heard shots ring out and the snap of bullets whistling past his ears on either side. Both zombies dropped as his friends covered him from the windows of the RV. Seeing an opening, Earle dashed for the vehicle himself, ducking inside and shouting, "Go, go, go...!"

        Things are getting dangerous -- Junior attacked by a zombie while Earle faces down another

Meanwhile, with all the commotion, Roman had been able to sneak across the street, using the burnt out hulk of a vehicle as cover. After what seemed like forever waiting for the zombies to shamble a safe distance away, he sprinted for Swingle's and dove across the counter top into the small, stone building. While waiting, Roman had been shaking his head, watching as Reef drove the other RV up and down the lane on the other side of the trees, alternately revving the engine then skidding to a stop. "What the freak is that guy doing...?" he mumbled. When the new guy returned to the corner intersection and slid to a stop, Ramon waved at him frantically at him. Once he caught his eye, he mouthed the words, "WAIT...FOR...ME!" He got a thumbs up and a grin. Ramon shook his head, again. "Crazy mutha..."

    Things are looking bleak for Earle -- in contact with 2 zombies and nearly surrounded

Coop and Daisy were on the run, again. They had eased the pressure off their friends, but were attracting the attention of a lot of zombies. Daisy would quickly enter a trailer to search it, while Coop tried to hold off the zombies with his rifle. Once Daisy had found something worth scavenging, she would exit the trailer, and add her pistol to the firing to slow down the zombies. Once they stemmed the surge a little, they would dash for the next building in the trailer park. As they were outside the last one, they heard honking as their RV sped around the corner. Earle and Junior's heads were hanging out the windows shouting at them to get in. Needing no further encouragement, the two survivors darted for the van and jumped inside. On the other side of the trailer park, C.J. was doing the same. Roman held the door open for him as he sprinted inside. C.J. shouted, "I'm in, now let's get out of here! Reef, you are a crazy sonofabitch...!"

    Zombies shuffle back and forth underneath the legs of the water tower drawn by gun shots

There were some close escapes, but all eight survivors exited the board inside one of the survivors' RVs. They scavenged nine caches of supplies and rolled well enough to find a couple more weapons or extra ammo. This would keep the convoy moving well into Indiana, and keep their bellies full. Earle certainly had the closest calls. He was hit by zombies twice, once rolling the necessary "6" to pass his Grit Check. The other time, the zombie rolled only a "Flesh Wound." Junior also had very good fortune, too, never seeming to miss when a zombie closed the distance and was within striking range. Mike S's Coop and Daisy were seriously good "team players." Whenever one of their group was about to be overwhelmed, they fired like crazy to draw off the zombie hordes. 

    Coop and Daisy on the run from zombies, again -- they played cat and mouse with them all game

Reef's "peace out" as soon as he ran out of an ammo was a disappointment. The player contended that he couldn't do anything since he was out of ammo. I told him that there are survivors in every game of Zombie RV that we play who are armed with only a melee weapon. He could run. He could search. There was plenty he could do besides leave his companions to do all the scavenging for supplies. Driving up and down the lane beyond the line of trees in the RV wasn't going to accomplish much. In the end, he did provide pickup service Roman and C.J., who had been cut off from the rest of the group. So, the "new guy" wasn't completely useless.

    Earle will relive this moment in nightmares as more and more zombies close in on him...!

I was happy with how the trailer park looked. The water tower is a great, iconic rural America terrain piece, too. The system of moving spawn points worked really well, I thought. I like it better than the one I've been using. It raises the danger level and limits the somewhat cheesy "rabbit" tactic of having a fast player continuously run back and forth to distract the zombies. Instead, the players stepped up for each other, firing to support group members who were in trouble. Except in scenarios where a single spawn point makes sense, I may keep this mechanic of moving spawn points for most of my scenarios. Its hard to use the word "realistic" in a zombie apocalypse game, but it certainly makes more sense.

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 119
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 54 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 10
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 53
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 39

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 2025: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 0

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 1