I Fought the Law...

I played the second scenario of my Day One campaign.  Again I played a modified Raid scenario - there will be no gangers and all Day One rules are in effect.  The goal was for PDoid to get to the house on the back left, find his friend Doc and return with him to the car.  The area is urban, with retail stores along the main road and residential behind.  There was a car barricade on the residential street - maybe the residents were trying to defend themselves.  This forced PDoid to approach Doc's place on foot.

PDoid is a Rep 4 Civilian armed with a shotgun and cricket bat.  His attributes are Athlete and Fencer.  This second attribute is one I invented myself.  It seems PDoid was a fencer in college.  I said the Fencer attribute allows an extra d6 in melee (like Brawler) but only if the model is armed with a sword or sword-like weapon (ie - machete).  'Sword-like' means the weapon is balanced like a sword (heavier towards the handle) so baseball bats, crowbars, etc. will not apply.  (Does anyone know if there is a similar attribute in any of the other THW games?)

PDoid passed 2d6 for getting to Doc's street.  He stepped out of the car and surveyed the scene.  It seemed relatively quiet.  No one was around.  He checked his shotgun, racked a shell and grabbed his cricket bat out of the back seat.  'Should be a piece of cake,' he thought...

 

By the way, hats off to Whiteface for the idea on the roads.  I think these turned out pretty good.  I need to get something better than Lincoln Logs for my suburban houses though...

Turn 1 - Activation:  Player - 3, Zeds - 4
Since I got a 7 right off, I rolled for approaching zeds.  It is an urban environment but since it is Day One I only count it as suburban for zombie generation.  I rolled 1d6 and got 2.  I used a scatter die to determine their placement and put two zombies on the table as indicated, each 12" from PDoid.  One is behind the retail stores to PDoid's left...

The other is ahead of PDoid and slightly to the right, among the parked cars...

The zeds activated first and both moved 6" towards their prey.  PDoid, figuring the quicker he gets this done the better off he'll be, decides to Fast Move.  Since he has the Athlete attribute I rolled 3d6 and passed 2d6, so PDoid gets to move 16".  He runs straight forward between the zeds, easily leaving them behind.  'So far so good,' he thought...

Turn 2 - Activation:  P - 5, Z - 6
Since I rolled an 11 I generated a police officer.  This could be trouble considering PDoid is so well armed.  I rolled on the police list and got a Rep 5 Police Detective armed with a BA pistol.  I wasn't sure how to deploy him so I decided he would get out of one of the parked cars.  Apparently he was sitting in the car keeping an eye on things.  I rolled randomly and determined he would get out of the car parked to the right side of the road in front of PDoid.  As he gets out of the car he sees my shotgun and draws his own gun, shouting, 'Halt!  Drop your weapons!'  PDoid is stunned into inaction.  This is not what he expected at all.  The zombies also seem confused by this new arrival and do nothing this turn...

Turn 3 - Activation:  P - 6, Detective - 3, Z - 1
I considered random events to be based on the player and zombie activation rolls so I rolled again for more zombies and got 3.  Again I used the scatter die to place them randomly 12" from PDoid.  One popped up behind the detective, one in a house to PDoid's left and another to the right of Detective Dobesh.  Activating first, Det. Dobesh advanced on PDoid and again instructed him to drop his weapons.  The zombies, attracted by this activity, all moved towards the detective and PDoid.  They were in charge range for next turn...  PDoid unfortunately just stood there with his teeth in his mouth, absolutely frozen with indecision...

Zombies close while Detective Dobesh shouts and PDoid waffles...

The Detective better pay attention...

Turn 4 - Activation:  P - 1, D - 4, Z - 6
Based again on PDoid's and the zombies' activation rolls I generated one more zed.  This one came from between two of the houses.  At this point I wasn't sure how to play this at all.  Would Dobesh fire on PDoid?  I considered rolling some kind of 'aggression test' for Dobesh but I didn't know just how to do that.  I considered using the Meet and Greet table in some way but again, I wasn't sure it fit the situation.  I really didn't WANT the police to shoot at PDoid but in the end I let common sense rule the day.  I figured a real cop in this situation - facing an armed man who is not complying with demands to drop his weapon - would fire. Dobesh fired twice, hitting PDoid once.  The shot knocked PDoid to the ground and rolling on the Recover From Knock Down chart he only passed 1d6.  PDoid went Out of the Fight!  Damn!  Unfortunately the nearest zeds were within range and descending on the helpless PDoid they began to feast.  Damn, damn, damn!  The feast would last for 6 turns but it was game over for PDoid...

I made Dobesh take the See the Feast test just for the fun of it and he only passed 1d6.  Horrified he ducked back, heading into the woods to his left.  'What have I done?!  What have I done?!' he cried as he realized the mistake he'd made.  His next activation he would have to recover from Stun while the zeds closed in to finish the feast that once was PDoid.  Detective Dobesh's shots didn't generate any more zeds...

At this point I considered playing on.  I figured Doc might have heard the commotion and come out of his house and that maybe Detective Dobesh would get some sense.  Maybe they could join forces and clear the zombies.  But in the end I decided to call it quits here and start Day One over again.  Seeing as my whole family was wiped out I didn't see much point in carrying on.

ATZ is an awesome game and even though I got my butt kicked in this first campaign I thoroughly enjoyed the games.  I'll be playing more soon and adding more models and characters.  I've decided to get some ganger types and some police officers so look for those soon.  Until then, peace.

The Collection Grows

We finally got a new camera so I thought I'd post some pics of my finished models so far.  You've already met the family.  Now meet 'Doc' and 'Cindy'...

These are a couple more Hasslefree minis to go with my other survivors.  The man with the axe and shotgun is based on 'Ash' from Army of Darkness, called 'Oakley' by Hasslefree.  I chose to give him the axe instead of the film's chainsaw arm.  He will be my friend 'Doc' in my campaign and hopefully will see some action soon.

The little girl is 'Katie' from Hasslefree and as far as I know has no movie counterpart.  I ordered her along with 'Peter' as they were cheaper to buy in a pack.  She doesn't represent any real life people I know although as I painted her I had a friend's little girl in mind.  She loooovvvveeesss pink!  There is something humorous about a little blond haired girl all in pink with a bloody baseball bat surviving the zed apocalypse.

The following pics are of my first zeds.  They are all Wargames Factory plastics.  I bought 48 to get my hoard started and I'm assembling and painting them in lots of 12.  These are the first 12.  The second set are assembled and about half painted.  I'll post them when they are finished.

The figures are average quality and easy to assemble. The details are pretty good but easily obscured by paint so thinner paint is better.  I didn't paint them to as high a standard as my heroes and as they are the first zombies I've ever painted I'm still learning.  I don't think these figures were designed to be single, star quality models but rather to be part of larger hoards.  The individual paint job is not as important as how they look together on the tabletop.

I'm experimenting with different skin tones.  I'll talk more about that when I post pics of the next 12 models.  This first 12 I went with an undead flesh tone of my own mix - some tan, some dark green and some gray.  I think it looks OK but I'm still working on it...

The first one on the left here is my favorite of this group.  He kind of freaks me out in fact!  Something about a redneck zombie in a wife-beater t-shirt that is chilling.  The next one I painted to be wearing a duster.  He's reminiscent of a cowboy wanna-be I used to know...  Next is my attempt at a US postal worker.  He got bit while on his appointed rounds - 'neither rain, nor snow, nor zombie apocalypse...'  Finally is a model that I call 'Opera Zed'.  For some reason he looks to me like he's singing opera on a stage...

These next 4 give you an idea of how you can make different looking zeds even using the same torsos.  Some minor mods and a different paint job and they look unique.  The first on the left is a guy in a black leather jacket.  I imagine he used to be one of those crotch rocket riding biker stud dudes.  You know the type...  Next to him is a standard zombie ambling along.  I like his bald head.  Next to him is a guy with the same torso as biker dude but I've painted him to be some kind of business man.  He looks like he's giving a 'thumbs up' like some lame business types are prone to do...  Finally in this group is a shirtless stud in long pants.  Maybe he was getting dressed for work when the zeds took him down...

The first on the left in this final group is my take on a doctor zed.  He's essentially the same as the cowboy wanna-be but with a different paint job.  Next to him is my second favorite among these 12.  He also is wearing the wife-beater t-shirt and with his lazy, waving, half eaten arm he reminds me of some trailer trash looking for a Budweiser.  Next to him is what I call 'surfer zed'.  Need I say more?  And finally we have my attempt at a zombie soldier.  Maybe he was an unlucky National Guardsman...

Anyway, that's all the models I have painted to date.  I should have more soon.  I'll be finishing my next 12 zeds in the next several days.  I want to buy some ganger types next.  I really like EM4's 'thugz' line...

Until next time...peace.