Time just slipped away

I haven't been doing much in the zombie theme of gaming (heck even the blog vanished for awhile and I didn't notice it). I am not sure when I will get back to it either. Though I am hoping to due a small game in the next day or two. Have to clean up my small game area first though.
So maybe there will be a new batrep here sometime next week... just have to see what happens.

And now for something differant

I have mentioned here a couple times about my brother and his family coming for a visit and the plan for some zombie gaming while their here. Well this morning I was hit with an idea.
My brother was the one who first got me into gaming with the original Marvel Super Heroes game put out by TSR in the 80's and early 90's.
Well I had the idea of using the Marvel rules (which can be found for free these days if you go hunting around the web) to run a zombie game. The game was written with the use of a map in mind. But I have decided to go with miniatures and terrain instead. We will use the ratio of 1 map area becomes 4". So your average person will move 4", a handgun will fire 8", and a rifle can hit up to 40" away.
I have only just started to work on this in the last few hours, so it is still more of a outline in my head then anything else. But hopefully I can have it all worked out in the next couple weeks.

Can you have a draw with the dead?

Yesterday was the big zombie day. It was very entertaining despite some problems with the rules. It seems that the Apoc-Z book needed LOTS more work before it was ready for the public. Some very core rules for playing the zombies are not explained very clearly. In fact alot of the wording for some of the zombie rules conflict with core rule mechanics. This was a rushed project (they admit as much on their forum) and it shows... If I had paid more then a $1 for this book I would be upset.
So anyways, we muddled our way through the maze of rules and still had fun with two games.

First was a resource patrol and this was fought to a stand still. The humans need units of 5 models to explore buildings. When the dust settled the humans had run out of 5 man units (one had left with a token already and the second was carrying a token). But the zombies were pretty spread out. So it was decided to end it in a tie.

Second we started to play a Rescue mission thing. But it didn't take long for us to realize we were doing something wrong... My zombie hordes (who have a 3" move) had crossed the board by turn two and had over run the base. Some of those confusing rules state that zombies move towards any gun fire... so each time the human player fired a unit, we moved the zombies closer... well when 6 or so units fire the zombes moved nearly TWO FEET... and it wasn't even their turn! By the time we realised that we had to be doing something wrong it was after 10pm.

I had a nearly three hour drive to get back home, so we ended the night then and there. But we had some discussion on how to try things next time.

I also learned that Grant plays (or atleast has a copy of) All Things Zombie. So maybe next time we will be playing that instead...

Yonkers anyone?

I spent a couple hours last night creating the following lists for the upcoming Apocalypse Z day.

First off the Living. This is, depending on how you look at it, an over strength platoon or a under strength company. It is build straight from the Modern Combat rulebook with the point cost modifier from the Apocalypse Z book. It includes:
4 US Army Rifle Squad, with the Future Force Warrior gear upgrade
2 Abrams MBT
Should make for a solid line of defense.

Then we have the Undead. This is a slight alteration to the list I have sticking to for awhile now. It probably is not a great dead list for most of the scenarios but should be pretty fun.
Zombie Overlord w/Command Undead, Call Of The Flesh, Nimble, Tough, and Shroud Of Darkness.
6 Zombie Hordes of 20 Zeds, including 2 Brutes, all with Acid Blood
2 mobs of 10 Bile Zombies.

Thankfully the models I am using for the Living are the now OOP Battlefield Evolution US Marine Corp, so they are pre-painted. Now I just need to get the 141 Zombies painted.... (que zombie moan)

A Dead time in the old town tonight

So I am just over a week away from my first games of Apocalypse Z.
I have the following list ready to go (still unpainted but some light converting done).

8 Zombie Hordes of 20 Zeds each
2 Bile Zombie units of 10 Zeds each
Zombie Overlord (with alot less powers then before)

This is 2000 points and rather numbers heavy. Not much for special types but a chance to see what a ton of standard Zeds can do.

I am going to try to do some painting, but it is still very hot and hard to use spray paint.

Hello out there is Zedland

Sorry for lack of any updates (for those that even care). I have not been doing too much gaming lately, what with the move and just general lack of motivation. What little gaming I have done has just been some simple sci-fi skirmishing and such, nothing really of note. I have had the urge to do some Starship Troopers gaming lately and so what time I have devoted to the hobby has mostly been that.
But I have been reminded why I love the game, but hate the rules. I won't go into details, other then I can't seem to learn how to use Mobile Infantry.
Anyways, I do like the way they re-wrote the rules to make Battlefield Evolution: Modern Combat (though I have played more World At War then Modern Combat). And I expecially like the mods to make Apocalypse-Z.
In fact I am thinking that I am going to put my Starship Troopers project aside for awhile and focus on my Zed Army.
I have been working on (well more of just sorta tossed together) a Zombie Overlord. The basic model is a Horrorclix or Heroclix scientist. This makes him a bit taller then the rest of my zombies, but not so much as to confuse the size level of the model (still size 1 like the regular Zeds). He had these elbow length gloves, one of which I cut off and replaced with a spare plastic zombie arms, so it looks like he lost a glove at some point. Then I trimmed off the head and replaced it with a plastic zombie head. That is about it... oh and I trimmed down his necktie at an off angle to make it looked ripped. Also I cut a few bits out of his lab coat to make it too like a bit ratted.
I might take a couple pics of him and post them, but I am trying to hold off till I have him at least base coated. But the heat is still to much for doing any spray painting.
So anyways, thats about it for now. The plan is currently to drive to Phoenix on the 28th for a whole day of Apocalypse-Z and Starship Troopers gaming. I am about to send Grant and e-mail telling him that I would rather skip the Starship Troopers stuff and focus on the Zed games, of course he is a follower here too, so maybe he will get the message here.
So if I don't post anything before then, I will try to remember to get some pictures of the zombie games that day and post them here.
Later all.

Soon... Very bloody soon...

I just got my stuff moved over to the new house. Still have a trip or two worth of stuff of my daughters. Then several loads of "house stuff". But only another trip or two tonight... the heat is just making this a killer.

Anyhow, I am thinking that this evening I may have to bust out my Zeds for some relaxing fun. Of course there won't be internet at the new house for another week or so. So this will probably be my last entry till then.
I will take notes on the my game (not sure about pictures, have to find where the camera got packed) and post a report ASAP.

Some good news for the future

I mentioned last month that I was going to go do some gaming in Phoenix. That went really well. I got the chance to meet some new gamers and play some fun games of Starship Troopers.

Now the same fellow and I are beginning to plan for our next gaming day. What's on the menu? Why the zombie game evolved from Starship Troopers of course, Apocalypse-Z.
I have already begun making a zombie army list. This will give me an idea of what I need to get painted, though the odds of me getting even a fraction of it painted in time are slim to none. But incase you missed it, playing with unpainted models is fine with me, and after our previous games, I noticed that these fellows don't care much either.

So on to the baddies...
After reading through the differant zombie types in the book I find myself leaning more towards the standard Zombie Hordes (normal classic type Zeds) then the more special types. Though I do really like the Bile Zombies and Plague Zombies.

Bile Zombies are good as they give the hordes a bit of ranged combat. Not really fitting with what I consider Zombie Lore. But a needed asset in a war based setting (as a opposed to a survivalist based setting, such as All Things Zombie). Though the range of only 6" doesn't mean a whole lot when compared to the 24" range of most of the guns carried by the humans.

Plague Zombies on the other hand are really just regular zombies that have increased odds of infecting humans that come into contact with them. So these lend well to the classic feel I am trying to stick with.

Now there is one major exception to my theme list. The zombies have a leader model called an Overlord. These are the original scientists who worked on both the drug that caused the zombie outbreak and also tried to make a cure. After testing the cure on themselves they became super zombies. They have loads of mental and physical mutations. They can control other zombies around them and can even summon more zombies to help. With this guy I am a little confused. You are allowed a maximum of one of these per army, I get that. But what I don't understand is if you HAVE to have one in your force. They are listed as "Rarity: 1 per army". Anyways, I have opted to include one, so I am covered if he is required. He doesn't really fit with the theme I have, but it might be nice to have a powerhouse figure lurking in the shadows.

Other figures I thought to include, but didn't.
There are a select few zombies that retain enough of their minds to still use weapons. These are Soldier Zombies and Zombie Super Soldier. First off are the Soldier Zombies. I sort of like the idea of zombies with guns... but have a couple problems with the unit. Reason one I didn't include them is they didn't fit my theme. But the bigger reason is the weapons they carry. For whatever reason these soldiers didn't die with any rifles. They all carry pistols (except the "NCO" who has a shotgun). This to me seems odd. And well the pistols only have a 10" range. Compared to the Bile Zombies who have a shorter range, but much more deadly attack for 3 points cheaper... yeah give me the Bile Zombies please.

The Zombie Super Soldier now, here is a figure I love. He is straight out of the Resident Evil games. A huge zombie monster with the options for a Rocket Launcher or a Chain gun (by the way, he is allowed to have both at the same time but can only fire one or the other each turn). Unlike the Zombie Soldiers this one interests me just due to my love of the Resident Evil games. I am thinking of ways to make this figure for my collection. I may start shopping around for figures once I have settled into the new house.

The other zombie types didn't do much for me, though some are kinda interesting.
The hounds, monkeys, and bats... well I see where they have places in the wargame aspect of the game. I am just not that interested in them. There is also a Zombie Beast, this is for zombifiying larger animals (bears, rhinos, etc). I could see some fun in this, but with the options for the Overlord, Super Soldier, and Abomination I don't think it is really needed.
Now the Zombie Abomination, here is another video game classic. Dude shakes... dude screams... dude's chest and back explode with monsterous limbs. Usually a mid level boss character. Here it makes a great enforcer type baddie. I would certainly think about including one of these someday... after I have my Super Soldier that is.

Anyways, after my ramblings there... here is my list (note that this is a "work in progress" list and is subject to change when something else catches my fancy).

6 x Zombie Hordes of 20 zombies each = 1200 points
2 x Bile Zombie units of 10 zombies each = 240 points
3 x Plague Zombie units of 10 zombies each = 360
1 Zombie Overlord with Acid Blood, Agile, Bile Spit, Crushing Attacks, Extra Attacks x2, Nimble, Pounce, Powerful Attacks, Quick, Tough, Call Of the Flesh, and Command Undead = 200 points
Total = 1200 + 240 + 200 + 360 = 2000

This ranks up as sort of a minimal list, there are just enough Zombie Hordes to allow the units of Bile and Plague zombies. But all the units are expanded to maximum size. The Overlord on the other hand is rather over the top. I went all out and spent all his allowed points on mutation upgrades. This makes him incredible in close combat, but very expensive. Ten percent of the army total in a single model... but then again he is way less then half the cost if the human army fields a Abrams tank (570 points).
I might go back and do some fiddling (truth is, I know I will fiddle with it) and try to work some Brute Zombies into the hordes (Brutes are normal zombes that get 2 attacks instead of 1 and get two hit points instead of 1 but cost 20 points each rather then 10 points each).

Just a week and a half or so to go.

Soon I will be moved to the new house and can dig out all my zombie goodness. I should have packed this stuff up last, so I could have continued to game with it... oh well.

So long without a game...

Arrgh!
I really wish I hadn't packed all my zombies away already. I am really itching for a game... or maybe thats the itch from Zed Plague...
Itchy...
Tasty...
Yummy...

Humm...

After going through the forums over at Wargames Factory I feel more then a little bummed.
I wish I hadn't been so quick to order all those zombies from them. Instead I wish I had gone with Mega Mini's. They cost about twice as much as the plastic ones, but they have so many more poses and a line of civilians that match.
Now I am stuck with either taking some sort of a loss and trying to sell the plastic ones to buy metal ones, or sticking it out and going else where for my civilian needs.

YAY! BOOKS!

Apocalypse Z and Modern Combat arrived today. I haven't had much more then a few moments to flip through the books though as we were looking at places to move to. But over the next couple days I will try to read through them and post some sort of review and maybe future plans for my zombie horde.

Sloooow

I hate waiting for stuff to come in the mail when I am mid project (or more like mid build/early project over all).
I put together another half dozen or so cars.
Otherwise everything is just sorta "on pause".

Another game to play

I just paid for a copy of Apocalypse-Z and Battlefield Evolution: Modern Combat from EBay. So hopefully in a few weeks or so I can give another zombie ruleset a try.

I have played Battlefield Evolution: World At War a couple times and I am a big fan of the Starship Troopers game. So I already have some idea of the basic game. But I am interested in the other types of zombies.

I have accepted the fact that I way over bought zombies for All Things Zombie. So a chance to play large scale battles between survivor army units and swarms of zeds seemed like a good idea. I can use some of my mass horde to make some of the special zombie types.

Speaking of my horde. I do have about three quarters of the double super horde assembled (somewhere around 350 or so). But I will leave the remaining hundred or so alone until I have had a chance to look at Apoc-Z.

Just can't shake the Zeds

I just finished putting together the first half of my zombie horde.

Also I have the last of my survivors put together.

And now it's on to the second half.

Short Break

I have taken a short break from my zombie stuff for the following:
1) the local 40k crowd is organizing a Apocalypse game in a few days. I decided to give it a go. So I need to get a bit of painting done for that.
2) The family and I are going to visit the Grand Canyon next month. But along the way we are stopping in Phoenix for a day and night to pick up another member of our little party who is flying in. While I am in the city I am working on setting up a few games for that day.
3) About the time we get back from the Grand Canyon it will be time to start packing up the house to move out to the new house.
So there probably won't be much going on here for the next couple months, but once I am settled into the new place I am sure I will be back to zombie gaming with a vengeance.

Burger Bar Employee... Taco?

This is Taco. He is my third painted survivor conversion.
Taco was your average under achieving young adult. He worked a dead end job at the local fast food burger joint (where he somehow picked up the nickname Taco). He spent his hours of free time playing shoot-em up video games and listening to heavy metal music.
When the Zed Plague hit he saw it as his chance to do something with his life. So now he is armed with the pistol his manager had stashed under the cash register and he is having the time of his life living out his video game fantasies.

Irwin's Big Day Out

So I decided to give Irwin a shot. He teamed up with Fozzy to check out a crash scene at a little truck stop outside of town.

I have a little 2'x2' game board that has been sitting in my closet unused for over a year now. So I figured I would bust it out and get some use out of it.
To adjust for the smaller game board, I converted all distances to centimeters. It's the same thing I do for games when I use 15mm figures, which just so happen to use the same sized pennies for bases that these guys are using. It seemed to work out fine. I may continue to use centimeters for all my ATZ games, as my normal table is just 3'x4' anyways.

Okay, so on with the show.

As I said, they are here to check out the crashed bus and semi. Just what they are looking for... I don't know. But Fozzy feels that it is his duty to look into it.

Right off to start the boys are in trouble. A zed suddenly appeared out of the woods and grabbed Irwin. Mean while little does Fozzy know, but a couple more zeds are following him down the lane.

Irwin has little trouble taking down his ambusher. But Fozzy just can't do anything about the zombie who grabbed him from behind.

While Irwin catches his breath, another zombie piles onto Fozzy. He manages to take out his original attacker, but goes down to the new threat.

Irwin, hearing Fozzy's screams turns to see the zombie take a bite out of Fozzy's belly. Irwin just couldn't handle it. He ran over and puked next to the car.

Taking a moment to pull himself back together, Irwin psychs up to avenge his fallen friend.

Irwin jumped up and unloaded his shotgun on the still feasting zed. But the loud bang got the attention of another zombie.

This one Irwin decided to take out the old fashion way. He charged forward and smashed it a good one with the butt of his gun. But having lost his friend and the local area being clear of zeds, Irwin packed it in and left the crash site behind.

Wildlife Expert Irwin

So here is my second converted survivor. This is Irwin. He is a Wildlife Expert and nature show host... or was until the Zed Plague.
He survived the plague because he was lost in the woods at the time (those cuts and scrapes on his clothes were caused by a pack of rabid woodchucks, NOT the living dead).
Normally Irwin is opposed to guns, but for insurance purposes he aways kept this double barreled shotgun in his truck. Now he is glad he did.

Officer Fozzy's folly

So I decided to give the rookie a chance to run the gauntlet. But he had a bit further to go then the Doctor did. This time I had to get my guy from corner to corner.
Officer Fozzy is a Rep 3 "rookie" police (military) armed with a bolt action rifle.


Wanting to get an idea of what he is up against, Fozzy runs out to the intersection and gets a look around. (not pictured is another zombie moving along the building to Fozzy's left, missed him with the camera)

Fozzy takes a moment to gather his wits... while the Zeds take a moment to finish eating their last victim's wits. (double 6's, but the random event did not apply, something about running out of gas)

Then it strikes Fozzy as a great idea to run his way past the two Zeds he can see... but he got off to a bad start and didn't quite make the distance. In fact he was forced to give ground to a Zed that nearly grabbed him... As he escaped one's grasp, another came around the phonebooth. Fozzy shot at, but missed, the zed. But again jumped back in time to avoid being grabbed. (blue die is where he retired to from the first zombie and fired at the second one, before retiring again)

The gun shot gets all the Zeds on the table (plus a new arrival) all moving in Fozzy's direction. So in another stroke of brilliance, Fozzy takes off for a dark alley.



Of course, just because he took off down the alley, doesn't mean that they wouldn't follow him!

Never stop to catch your breath in a dark alley when you Zeds on your tail! And if for some reason you do? DON"T TURN YOUR BACK ON THE WAY YOU JUST CAME FROM!!!


So in the end it only took a single Zed grabbing the rookie after a fatal mistake. But even if Fozzy had made it past this one, well...


So Fozzy came to a grizzly end this time. Maybe next time out he will find some bait err... I mean a partner to help him out.

Officer Fozzy

So here is a couple shots of my first figure. This is Officer Fozzy. He is a rookie cop with just a week on the force before the Zed Plague hit.
He is armed with an old hunting rifle he found in a wrecked pick-up truck after his police issue sidearm ran out of bullets.

This was my first zombie converted back to be a survivor. As you can see, painting is not one of my strong points. I am more confortable painting armored sci-fi troops. But we all have to stretch our horizons sometime.

A test run of the ATZ rules

I played through my first ATZ game just a few minutes ago. It was just a simple "get a lone rep 3 civ from one table edge to the other".

Here is a quick and dirty of what happened.

Turn 1:
Dr. Teeth (Rep 3 Civ, BA Pistol (single shot) moved onto the board.
Three zombies were rolled and placed (two off to the left, one towards the bottom that had to shift quite a ways to get placed).

Turn 2: Zombies activate, but Dr. Teeth does not.
zombie #1 to the left has LOS of the Dr. and moves towards him.
zombie #2 to the left had to shift slightly during placement and ended up on the far side of a phonebooth so did not have LOS, but moved roughly towards the Dr.
The final zombie (#3) moved stright ahead and contacted a wall, he then moved randomly to the right (this just happened to be the right direction to bring it into LOS of the Dr.'s backside, but still a few inches away)

Turn 3: Zombies activate first, then the Dr.
Zombie #1 charges the Dr, who fires and knocks it down.
Zombie #2 comes into the Dr's LOS. Dr rolls In Sight, but missed. Zombie finishes moving, but still out of melee of the Dr.
Zombie #3 comes just shy of the Dr's rear end.
Dr. fast moves (only 12") towards where zed #1 started from.
Two zombies are rolled for, one appears (#4) 12" towards the top of the board and a second (#5) appears from the same spot zed #3 had started at. But this put it in LOS of where the Dr had ran to.

Turn 4: Dr activates, but zeds do not.
Dr. Teeth fast moves (16") around some vehicles, the phonebooth and the corner of a building. During this run he passed an alley way that zed #4 happened to be looking down.

Turn 5: Zed active, Dr not!
Zombie #1 gets up from being knocked down.
Zombies #2 & #3 move toward the phonebooth area, where they last saw the Dr run towards.
Zombie #4 moves down the alley way it last saw the Dr move across and comes up just half an inch short of grabbing the Dr from behind.
Zombie #5 moves towards the corner of the building it last saw the Dr move around.

Turn 6: Dr. Teeth saves his bacon by activating first, then the Zeds.
Dr got his fast move of 16" and ran for his exit point, not quite there but close.
Zombie #1 moved forward 4" and moved into contact with a car. He turned to his left and moved the final 2". He then could see the Dr at the other end of the board.
Zombie #2 (having lost track of the Dr at this point) moved into contact with a semi-trailer, turned right and wandered into a alcove created by the jack-knifed semi-cab and a roadblock.
Zombie #3 had been shuffling along with #2, but went left instead at the trailer and started towards the table edge point it had started the game at. (weird huh?)
Zombie #4 followed after the Dr keeping him in sight but was well behind.
Zombie #5 walked into a wall and took off to his right. Reaching the corner of the wall, he spotted the Dr from behind, but was still half the table away.

Turn 7 had the Zeds go, but not the Dr.
Zombies #1, 4, & 5 all moved towards the Dr. But none were close enough to get him.
Zombie #2 bounced around his alcove a couple times but ended facing the right direction to get out next time.
Zombie #3 hit the table edge and wander off to his right taking him even farther from any action.

Turn 8 had the Dr go first, but it was all he needed to get off the table for
the "win".

Repeatedly I thought my Dr was going to get bit from behind and not be able to do anything about it. But he certainly was a lucky S.O.B. and made it out of there.

Next time I will have them painted up and will take pictures.

So I jumped the gun a bit

Okay, that e-mail must have gone out a day late or so. My zombies came in the mail today.

They are great little figures. Already I have clipped two sprues and made some dudes. I have tossed together four zeds and four survivors.

Pictures, before painting shots, will be coming hopefully this weekend.

And the wait continues

I received the e-mail last night saying that my zombies had shipped. That was a bit depressing. I had hoped that they would have arrived by now, instead it will be another few days. Lame!

But I got a few more of the cars put together. I will post pictures once all the zoo pictures have been cleared from my camera, maybe sometime this weekend.

Also I have put together a few more buildings. Two are bars, you can never have too many bars when the dead have risen. The third is a two story "office building". But I think I will put a sign on it saying Clinic or Hospital instead. Again I will have pictures soon.

Oh it burns!

I didn't get anything done this weekend other then build a test model of the Microtactix's cardstock cars. That was Saturday evening.

On Sunday my mom took my daughter and I on a bit of a trip out of town to visit a tourist trap animal safari and zoo. It was very entertaining and a nice way to waste the day. But I of course forgot to bring along any sun screen.
Now I am lobster red and it hurts just to think about moving.

But hopefully I will have more to report on the gaming side of things as the sunburn fades.
Oh and I am still waiting for my zombies, maybe by the end of the week?

Now I have something to read.

My print copies of All Things Zombie and Haven arrived today. Yay!

I have not yet started to read them, but I did flip through them. The print quality seems very nice. Bold lettering thats easy to read. But this does make the pictures very, very!, dark and some are hard to make out.
Sadly my mail carrier decided to do her best to jam the large envelope into the mail box rather then bring it to my door, or even honk to get me to come out to her (which she did yesterday so I could sign for some letters, she is lazier then I am). So my copies were a bit bent and not the ones I would have selected off the shelf if I was buying from a shop.

Before I go, here are a couple shots of a sample table I laid out this morning. I printed out some cars and trucks this morning too. That will give a bit more clutter to the tabletop.

Its a dangerous place, a dead place, it's Zed City

Welcome to Zed City. A place for me to record the on going zombie gaming projects I have just begun.
Also I plan to post after action reports about the games played in Zed City.

So first off here is what I have started.

I have printed off a small selection of the nice paper buildings provided by Germy's World. They have a slight cartoon like quality to them, I think it might be the colors, but thats fine with me. I really like these. They don't take much effort to build (though getting the corners to line up right is something I have problems with). I have at this point about a dozen or so built.




I still have a few more waiting to be built, but I decided I wanted to take a stab at making some roads.
So the other day I found some free paper road tiles. I printed them out on heavy cardstock but they were just too light to keep from curling. So this morning I took some spray glue and a second sheet of cardstock and gave them some extra backing. This has not stopped the curling completely, but they are now stiff enough that they can be pressed flat and will stay that way for a couple hours or so. Certainly long enough for a game.



So that is my project so far.

The other night I placed my first order for Wargames Factory's nice looking plastic zombie kits. I went a tad over board and ordered two of their Super Zombie Horde deals, so thats four hundred and eighty zombie figures. But based on some pictures posted on their forums by a creative fellow going by the name Sagh, I am planning to convert some of these zombies back into living survivors. Should make for an interesting collection of zombie fighters, and of course a matching zombie figure of the surivior after they have been turned.

I also have a copy of the highly recommended All Things Zombie and Haven ordered an on the way. These rules should provide me with endless hours of zombie fighting fun.

Well thats it for now. I will post more when I have more to post.
Good luck and remember the rules of zombie survival.