Day Five Back at the RV

Apart from picking up a couple of weapons, trying to find a "safe place" at the railroad depot hadn't worked out well at all, and subsequent events just seemed to make matters worse..........
The group had managed to make their getaway from the compound with Si and Kate (the couple from the warehouse) in tow, and they even met up with Hank, the lucky police officer, on the way back to the RV. Brad's mind was already working on the issue of how long the rations would last with so many extra mouths to feed when the newcomers dropped their bombshell - "We're heading back into Wichita Falls"

Hank obviously still believed that "the authorities" would get to grips with the situation and supported Si and Kate's desire to head for home, telling them he'd escort them on his way back to the station - then Sarah had piped up and laid out her grievances over Travis taking them out of the apartment where they'd been safe, leaving all their belongings, to come out here seemingly facing danger at every turn -  finishing her rant with the statement "I'm going back too!"

Brad argued that he'd only seen things getting worse since the outbreak started, with no signs at all of it being brought under control, and Travis pointed out that they'd already witnessed from the apartment window lowlifes taking to the street, looting and such, generally making things even more dangerous.
The debate had gone on well into the night, but the four of them wouldn't change their minds. They'd set off at first light the following morning, and Brad had promised to wait 24 hours with the vehicle until the following morning in case they ran into trouble and came back.
48 hours later, there was still no sign of them - the fledgling group had been split!

During that time, Travis had come up with the suggestion of heading over to Campbell's place, a farm set well off the Gainesville road. It was a where they used to go and hang out when they were kids, and in more recent times he'd arranged to rehearse with his band in the old barn.
Hannah supported the idea, and since it sounded promising from their descriptions, Brad agreed to give it a shot.

Day Seven     Campbell's Farm

Travis co-piloted on the drive away from Witchita, and they took the back roads he knew (from when he'd be driving home after maybe just one beer too many!) and pointed out a place to leave the RV before approaching the farm on foot.

Brad removed the rotor arm from the vehicle and put it in his pocket (an old army trick) before locking up. "That should make sure it's still here when we get back, even though it'll stop a quick get-away if we need one!"
Not far down the track, they saw the farm.......

......... it all looked quiet, and with a nod from Brad, they made their way towards the entrance.......

........ having advanced onto the table, it's time generate PEF's and roll for possible zombies, but I'm afraid you're going to have to wait til next week to find out what happens folks.
Unfortunately my free time is still severely limited due to recent unfortunate events. Thankfully that all comes to a head tomorrow, so I've set up this next encounter in the campaign, ready to play through and take my mind off things.

Y'all come back real soon y'hear, and see how we get on down at Campbell's farm!"

Heads Up.

Unfortunately, I've not had a great deal of hobby time this week, but I have made a couple of "finds" which I thought I should pass on to fellow gamers.

The first of them is this articulated truck from "Home Bargains". It's described as 1/64th scale on the box, but I reckon it works OK with 28mm mini's without being overpowering on a 3ft square board - and at £4.99 I reckon it's a useful addition to the vehicle pool.

The second discovery was made in a charity shop - but I'm sure these will be on a certain online auction site as well.......

Cluedo "Super Sleuth"!
A few things on the box art caught my eye and when I spotted the £2.99 price tag, I couldn't resist a punt.
The big differences between this game and the 'standard' version is the replacement of the folding game board with individual Room Tiles, and a collection of white metal miniatures instead of plastic tokens......

I reckon the twelve tiles that make up the "manor" will be excellent for off-the-cuff room 2D floor plans in all sorts of games, and the mini's have got bags of character!

They're pretty good for scale too...........

so, if I never use the tiles, I reckon it was £2.99 well spent - and supporting a good cause into the bargain!


Hopefully back to 'Normal Service' soon!

Only gone and done it!

After painting the last four LNoE zombies, as mentioned as a footnote to the previous post, the "100 strong horde" was tantalisingly close, just needing five more zeds to get there.
I got my second white metal zombie when the postman arrived with an order from Heresy Miniatures (the only other metal mini in the horde is a Hasslefree "Zombie Suzi").
 I'd bought some stuff mainly for another project, and he was an 'order filler' but ironically got painted first! I say mainly, because I couldn't resist getting their 'not Amy Pond' ("A Girl In Some Clothes"), who I've given a shotgun and added to my Survivors / Gangers collection.

Once they were done I couldn't stop myself going for the century, so set about assembling and painting another four of the female zombies from the "Project Z" starter set.

So that's it! I can take a break from wafting a brush over the walking dead until Zombtober, and to celebrate, I've pre-painted the "survivor" versions of Hannah and Brad (the eagle-eyed among you might have noticed there's already been a transition in their figures from Day One to Week One), and taken the 'Not Yet Dead' minis off the painting pile - I hope I'm not tempting fate and they manage to to make it to survivor status now!

The pair are posing in front of the "Blotz" store and telephone booth, which are also now painted and in the process of being weathered so I can make a start on the other 'Blotz Bits'.

In between painting sessions, I've also tried to fix my warped terrain squares by gluing some more printed road tiles to the opposite side.The idea is to create a sandwich, and whatever 'pull' is being created by the glued card will even out and hopefully result in flat terrain pieces.
After twelve hours, the cork tiles were no longer curled up towards to original face...........
they'd curled in the opposite direction! Not as severely though, and this has at least proved the core theory, so I'm not writing them off just yet. I'm quite happy to give it a bit more drying time to see what happens.

That's it for now, I hope everyone has had a great weekend.

Day Four - part two

Before we continue, apologies for some of the dodgy photo's in this AAR, but  thanks to "real life CARP (anag)" I've been playing through game turns at ridiculous times, and in some, the low light has affected the quality (I will get some better lighting sorted to prevent this happening in the future!).
Now, where were we?...........

When Brad asked about the upper floor, the couple told him that the door at the top of the landing was locked, and seeing as they had no firearms, they hadn't taken any chances.
Brad borrowed the fire axe and told the other guys to follow him while the girls kept an eye on things outside.

At this point, I introduced the "Risks & Rewards" deck to my campaign, counting each floor as a new building as per the main rules. When I turned to top card to see what they'd find I got this (no zombies or other occupants, but a discarded rifle) .....

......... after a quick head-scratch I decided to play it out as follows:~

The door had been locked from the inside, and after forcing it open with the axe the guys found themselves in the depot office.

A single figure lay sprawled  on the floor behind the desk, with a rifle by his side. "Looks like he took the quick way out" said Brad as he picked up the weapon.

Everyone's attention was suddenly drawn outside to the yard, as a pair of cops arrived (in response to the "Shots Fired" call made earlier) - unfortunately, it wasn't just the citizens attention that was drawn to their arrival... especially when they left the motor running when they got out of the car to investigate.
Maybe they were just tired after a four day continual shift - at least they'd obeyed the instruction to leave the siren off!

The officers spotted the zombies at the far side of the yard and saw the growing crowd by the gate.....

.... and immediately moved forward to check out the open workshop door,

oblivious to the fact that the running motor continued to attract more zombies to the scene,both in the yard area,

as well as out by the gate!

Things were turning very bad, very quickly as three zombies came around the corner of the depot building

 - the police officers turned and snapped off a couple of shots each....

...... which were either panicked or rushed because none of them hit their targets! (They did attract two more zeds though!)

Meanwhile, Brad told Travis to unlock the side door in case they get a chance to break for it that way, but the lady with the axe was shocked - "Your'e not going to just leave those two officers out there are you?"

The group gathered by the side door, and as the guy with the baseball bat stood by his partner, Brad tried to talk sense to the pair - explaining that the main gate is likely to give way at any time and when it does, all hell will break loose.

Out in the yard, only one officer gets off a round before the zombies charge and the melee starts, missing his target again, but thankfully not attracting another zombie either.

The initial melee sees one zombie despatched, but one officer is down with more walking dead closing in......

....... and the gate looking like it's about to give!

The terrified officer made a run for the open workshop door, slamming it shut behind him.....

...and with the cops beyond help the pair see sense and follow Brad's instructions as the group assemble at the side door of the warehouse,

not seeing "the feast" going on out in the yard,

but hearing the crash as the gates give way!

Winning the activation (again! so many times either the zombies won the activation roll or the group won with a "6", too high for Brad's Rep5 to activate), the walking dead pour into the yard, some closing in on the feast while others either go to the door they saw the cop disappear through, or move towards the sound of the still running motor.

Seizing their chance, on Brad's signal, the group make a break for it, but Brad himself risks taking a diversion....

.......and the surviving officer makes his escape through the door on the opposite side of the workshop.

Brad brandishes the shotgun and ammo he's taken from the boot of the patrol car, but Hannah doesn't seem best pleased with him for taking the risk and lets her feelings be known as they leave the depot and head back towards the RV!


This is how I handled "the gate" - based on the ATZ:FFO rules for barricaded doors and building defence values. I wanted something that kinda reflected the oft repeated scene in movies where the weight of the horde is brought to bear on a fence etc, and add uncertainty to solo play.
It seemed to work well enough.

Finally, here's some recently painted zombies, some of which appeared in the encounter (and a survivor who definitely didn't). They were the last four from "The Last Night On Earth" boardgame (Hasslefree survivor) and they were put in the 'zed box' when I finished 'em and  pulled out during the game for their debut before I posted the 'zed tally' photo - 95 now and the 'painting in threes' idea straight out of the window!

Speaking of windows, they're posing in front of a shop which I got very recently as of part of the Blotz bits acquired after following Andy's link on Da Gobbo's Grotto !

Thanks for calling by, and I hope "y'all come back real soon y'here" if only to read what happens next, which I'll document as soon as I find out myself!

Back In The Suburbs

On their way back to the RV, the group saw where the fleeing citizens had left the railroad and headed towards the highway - there was no sign of the two zombies, so they assumed that they'd followed them.
Once safely inside and Hannah's ankle had been strapped, they sat with a coffee and took stock of the situation.....
Travis and Sarah had left their apartment block with only the clothes they were wearing and the weapons they carried (and Travis's guitar!), so now the food and water supply would be used up in half the time. Ammunition would soon be a problem, especially for the bow since as far as Sarah knew, the nearest archery store was over in  Fort Worth.
When the question of 'what the hell to do next' came up, they narrowed it down to two options:-
Head back to the apartment to pick up clothing and supplies, or check out the nearby freight compound Brad and Hannah had passed a little further down the track when they hid the RV.

Day Four

The following morning a decision had to be made and Brad pressed the point that they needed a better hiding place for the RV, and Hannah needed a little more time for her ankle to heal before heading back into town.

Travis agreed and Sarah just gave a shrug, so the group headed off down the track.

It wasn't long before they arrived at the perimeter of the compound and they cautiously looked for a way in. The main gates were secure, but they could see another entrance on the far side.

Once there, Brad had a clear view through the window into the empty security cabin,

and the group moved into the depot.

(I was playing this encounter on a reduced sized board, and most of the zombies generated by the group entering play had "clockfaced" between 7 and 11 o'clock, so after rotating around to a valid spawning point, they appeared as a small hoard just outside the depot enclosure!)

Travis gave a warning as something moved from behind the depot building and across the yard ahead of him.....

..... though it turned out to be just a bundle of newspaper caught by the breeze!
Their relief was short lived though, as a pair of zombies shambled out of the garage / workshop and headed straight for them.

The group reacted quickly, closing up and dropping the zeds with two well aimed shots.

Being out in the 'burbs, the gunshots failed to attract anymore unwanted attention, but didn't go unnoticed by the "hoard" outside the compound....... or the three zombies by the container stack!

The team managed to get the jump on them though, Sarah hitting the huge 'docker' between the eyes with an arrow while shots from the guys pistols took down the other two, again without drawing in anymore walking dead.

So far so good, but while their backs were turned a PEF emerged from the depot doorway and headed straight for them - resloving with two successes....Contact!

A tense moment for the group as the roll was made on the 'Contact Table'......................

"Citizens"!! Two of 'em (they'd obviously been holed up in the depot building - the guy had found a baseball bat from somewhere and the woman with him had taken a fire axe from the wall).
Brad's 4 successes against their 2 (they rolled 3 but lose one for being outnumbered two to one) meant the 'Meet & Greet' went well, with the newcomers eager to help out, and after making sure the workshop was clear, they went over to the main building.

Once inside, it was obvious that they'd been safely hiding out in here (both doors could be bolted from the inside) and had scavenged a few "home comforts" from peoples fly tipped junk out by the track.

Brad asked "What's upstairs?" just as Sarah, who'd been keeping an eye open by the door, warned that they had company outside the main gate......

To Be Continued.........