ATZ - Ground Zero

Ok, so I've spent the last two months making terrain and painting figures for Zombie gaming, so what reason do I have for turning down MacSver's suggestion of trying "All Things Zombie"? No good reason at all (ignoring the fact I hadn't managed to fully digest the latest version (ATZ - Final Fade Out). Queue the familiar learning Two Hour Wargames ruleset learning process of frantic page flicking!

For the table I decided to put most the terrain I have on, just to see how it would look and set up. It was decided that the scenario would be in the first 10 weeks of the outbreak during daylight hours. Our two characters had been in touch with each other and the aim of the game was to meet up and get off table, with each character entering the table at opposite corners.

Zombie Hunter Gang Finished

The last 2 members of the gang are done:

Daphne:

and Scooby:

The most difficult part of the whole gang was trying to get the colour of Daphne's dress. Didn't quite get it, but the close enough in this context.

And of course a group (or should that be gang) shot:

Zombie Hunter Fred

The unofficial group leader, Fred:

Hasslefree Miniatures Barney (b)

Zombie Hunter Velma

The brains of the Scooby Doo Zombie Hunters, Velma:

Zombie Hunter Shaggy

First member of the Scooby Doo Zombie Hunters, Shaggy;

Figure is "Wolsey (b)" from Hasslefree Miniatures . I've obviously not based him yet. I'll do that when I've finished the entire gang for the sake of consistency (or because I'm lazy and hate basing!).

Zombies and Looting in the Country

After the Zombie Apolcalypse there is no point trying to defeat them, just try to survive around them.

In this "All Things Zombie" 3 player scenario (Arabiansquire, Halo*Star and myself) Arabiansquire controlled the family boarded up in their home, Halo*Star had The Goons, a set of mobsters, and Arabianknight controlled a trio of Ex Territorial Army cadets.
 
The Force makeup was:

• Family: Dad (Rep 5, Shotgun, bat), Ashley (Rep 4 Pistol, Chainsaw), Granny (Rep 3, Shotgun)
• Goons: Steve (Rep 5, Machine Pistol), John (Rep 4, Pistol), Bill (Rep 4, Pistol)
• ex-TA: Sgt Wells (Rep 4, Submachine gun), Terry (Rep 4, Submachine Gun), Spoon (Rep 4, Bolt-action Rifle)

Setup

The Ex-TA came in from the woods at one end of the table. The Mobsters came via the road behind the garage at the opposite end. The family were holed up in their boarded cottage. All the buildings (garage, generator shed, cottage and rear workshop) were considered to be standard ATZ buildings.

Starting Zombies were generated as per the rural rules. Worth noting for history that the large group of zeds on the opposite side of the garage from the Mob were a result of Halo*Star rolling seven consecutive "2"s!

The Mobsters work their way round the area, missing
some approaching zombies.

Meanwhile the TA take cover behind the workshop
as some undead emerge from the woods

As the zombie horde is drawn to the gunfire, most the mob open fire
but one can't fight off a brace of dead and goes down.

The weekend soldiers clear the are and make it to the front door
 of the workshop.

On the other side of the cottage the two surviving criminals
run round the back of the genrator enclosure, hoping their
now ex-colleague will provide a feast distraction.

"One stands guard, two go in" are the orders for the TA.
They bump into a trio of other survivors who, after a tense
moment or two decide to joint the soldiers.

The two mob men make it to the kitchen door...

but are greeted with a pistol blast from Ashley and
forced to duck back.

Ill advisedly, Ashley decides to follow up but
gets gunned down by the goons  reaction fire.

Coast clear, the final soldier enters the workshop.

Not wanting to rush through the door again the mobman
rips off the boards covering the window - only to be immediately
blasted my Dad's shotgun.

All alone the final suited criminal decides to leave.

The group in the workshop make a break, but with a couple of poor
activations are cut off.

They attempt to blast a path clear...

But fail and beat a hasty retreat, leaving the cottage occupants
to patch up.

All Things Zombie - lesson 2

With Halo*Star visiting last weekend I took the opportunity to continue the All Things Zombie learning.



Setup after players first move. Viewing from the south-western corner.

Similar to last session, all 3 players (Arabiansquire was also playing) had a group of 3 figures - a Rep5 star and 2 rep 4 grunts armed with guns .I won't bother with exact details - suffice to say they were all target 3 impact 1 apart from one cop who had a bolt action rifle (target 1, impact 3). Again we set up an urban encounter to maximise zombie encounters and building searching - the only way to learn after all. The progress was pretty slow, as there were quite a few occassions for looking up rules again, although it was faster towards the end.

The civilians head into the office (right)
to escape the zombie crush, whilst zombies
gather to block off the cops.

A tense standoff with another
armed group of civilians.

This session ran with a better mix of action. Halo*star's civilian's entered from the east and managed to evade a group of zombies early on through a building before dashing across the road to a block of flats where they encountered no-one (ground floor) humans who didn't join them (1st floor) and humans who did join them, but only for that session (2nd Floor).

The mafia search a warehouse.

Arabiansquire's mafia types entered from the north and searched through a couple of warehouses before blasting some zombies in the street and then dashing into a garage to hide and search.

The cops bolt out the back door to
hide from the horde out front

My cops came in from the south-west corner and spent most the time trying to blast and run themselves clear of the hordes of zombies generated at the start - coming in at a corner and rolling for 17 zombies tends to group them together!! Everything was running pretty smoothly, with the odd compliction of zombies not going down, but the main talking/fun point was one that definately only happens in a TwoHour Wargame game.

 

 

 

 

The cops quietly hide round the
corner...until the mafia appear at
the other end of the street.

My cops had just managed to clear a corridor and away from the edges of the board before a zombie horde came round the corner. The zombies were travelling to the last guns shots fired, crucially close to but away from the cops, so staying quite was the order of the day. Next Arabiansquires mafia appear out of a building at the other end of the street, causing a grunt cop to open fire with his bolt action rifle after a reaction test. The mafia leader was hit- Out Of Fight whilst the rest ducked back under the received fire reactions.

 

 

 

 

 

The cops get swapped as the
zombie tide turns.

The brief firefight alert the passing zombies to the cops presence and two of them went down with bites in the melee.

 

So much for staying quiet! The irony of this all happening because the cops PASSED his reaction rolls wasn't lost!

 

Next time we'll try a more focused scenario and add in some character attributes.

The Undead live - ATZ

The Two Hour Wargames ruleset adoption plan continues, as Arabiansquire and myself had a session running through the "All Things Zombie (Better Dead Than Zed)" rules. I have played the original ATZ rules a couple of times a few years ago, but changes have been made to some of the mechanics since then (and I can bearly remember what I did last week - let alone remember rules from 4 years ago!). No photos were taken I'm afraid, but this isn't a batrep so don't worry.

An urban encounter quite a time into the outbreak was decided upon to a) see how my card stock buildings covered the ground and b) to bring as many zombies onto the board as we could to get the hang of the encounter mechanics. We both had 3 man squads, myself with 3 surviving cops (which counted as military for reaction, etc) and Arabiansquire with 3 mafia types (counting as gangers for reaction, etc). The attribute rules were left out for simplicity as well.

Well aim b) was certainly fulfilled, as I only had 34 painted zombies (more than enough I thought) which wasn't enough for even the opening numbers at the start of the game! I'll have to get based some of those on the leadpile shelf! Also ArabianSquire found that blasting zombies with submachine guns was generating as many zombies as he was killing. Luckily for him in 4 turns we managed (it was pretty slow going and we were only playing for an hour) the zombies managed to 6s for every single activation, so never moved from their initial setup points. But crucially buildings were investigated with a variety of outcomes and zombies were fought, killed and generated so I feel most of the ground was covered with the exception of meeting other humans - which no doubt will happen next time - hopefully next weekend.