ATZ the board game bat rep part 2

Hi all

We pick up where we left off from part 1 which you can read Here.

Beck fumbled for the magazine she had stuffed in her pocket earlier that day. She was running again, she just had to make distance and get away from the bar Meemo’s that she had entered trying to find a weapon, but which had instead been filled with zombies! Now there were just so many of the deadheads pouring out of the surrounds trying to get to her and her BFF Tonya and snack down on the two ex-street walkers.  Talking of which, where was Tonya? The beautiful yet deadly woman who had travelled with Beck from Las Vegas to this dusty no-name shithole.

The loud discharge of a firearm over on the north west side of town drew Beck’s attention, that had to be Tonya. Finally pulling out the clip and slamming it into her own pistol, Beck pulled back the slide in time to see a zed stumbling closer to her. Lifting the weapon she pulled the trigger double tapping the big male and dropping it to the floor. Stepping over the redead-undead she headed toward the house that the friends had first entered when arriving in Shitsville confident that there would be no zombies inside now that they were chasing after the pair. [in the game buildings that have been entered literally have that as their status and are marked with a token! A player has to actively search it to reveal any items and for the building to gain the “searched” token] Creeping into the house she quickly but carefully searched it looking for weapons. “Goddamn it!” She cursed under her breath finding nothing, not even a revolver in the bedside cabinet, this was America wasn’t it? Where were all the goddamned citizens exercising their goddamned 2nd amendment rights?

Tonya, BFF to the frustrated Beck eyed the door of a likely house in the north west of town. The house was surrounded by a chain link fence with signs telling visitors to the property that “Trespassers will be shot without warning!” There just had to be a veritable arsenal stashed away behind those walls, she was sure of it.  Moving closer she saw that the front door was slightly ajar, pistol raised she crab-walked over and toe poked it open further, peering into the gloom.  Pistol leading the way now, she stepped silently into the hallway balancing the need for stealth with speed as the zombie hordes rampaged outside.  Tonya hoped that her friend was keeping safe somewhere, Beck had a tendency to get into trouble due to her bullheaded nature. Tonya was always having to pull her buddy’s fat out of the fire back in the day, whether it was a result of her mouthing off at some of the other girls back on the strip or pulling her off some “John” who'd thought he could rough her up because she walked the streets.  Tonya snorted with suppressed laughter as she remembered the time when she had walked into Beck’s room to find that Russian dude with a bottle shoved up his a…… A sudden noise coming from the room up ahead caused her to come back to the task at hand. “Damn it Beck, always distracting me!” She cursed as she lifted her pistol, pointing it down the hallway at the far room.  A crash from above her, followed by a low moan told her that another of the foul creatures that had once been ordinary people before “the Plague” had torn through America and by now, no doubt the world, was approaching. Another crash, another room and then another in a different direction and Tonya started to retreat back towards the front door.  One second the hall was empty save for Tonya, the next six of the former human beings who had lived their lives probably preparing for this very day but somehow falling anyway, came tearing out of adjoining rooms desperate to rip at her tender, warm flesh.

Beck jogged out of the door of the residence on the eastern edge of the dust bowl she had labelled “Shitsville”. Finding not even a dainty .22 in a ladies handbag in the hallway closet, she was royally pissed at this dump of a town, where were the guns? In this modern age of America where even toddlers had firearms and most households had more than one, where the fuck were the motherfu…… Beck’s inner rant was cut off as a huge weight crashed into her from the right side of the building. The zombie that charged her, pinned her right arm and consequently her pistol to her body while it tried to sink it’s teeth into the fleshy part of her shoulder. Beck screamed in agony as the filthy beast tore a piece of her deltoid muscle away and quickly swallowed the hot flesh. Drawing back her left hand, she snapped out a quick punch that forced the zed’s head back and allowed the former hooker to grab it by the lank hair in an attempt to slam its face into the wall. This brilliant plan which would have allowed her to gain vital space to run was curtailed as the toupee of the former resident of Shitsville was yanked off its head leaving Beck with a handful of Donald Trump Special. Taking advantage of her shock the zombie tried again to bite into her right arm only to find a mouthful of artificial hair as Beck shoved the wig down its throat. Twisting away, she desperately kicked out with her right leg, pushing rather than striking the undead creature back but gaining some clearance and allowing her to take few stumbling steps away from the choking zombie and right into the path of another.

Tonya emptied her clip down the length of the hallway at the family of dead ‘uns bearing down on her, the first in line, probably the matriarch of the house took a round to the forehead and dropped to the floor tripping the others behind her and giving Tonya a precious second or two to try to get clear of the house. At the last minute her famed agility left her though as she stumbled over the threshold and fell onto the front porch of the building. Gasping with the shock of falling she managed to regain her footing just as papa bear and one of the baby bears crashed into her and bowling her to the floor once more.

Beck growled in frustration as she bounced off the meaty chest of an enormous male zombie and stumbled backwards. “Leave me ALONE!!” She screamed at the creature, venting all of the anger and hatred that had been building up over the last three weeks. Curling her fingers into tight fists and forgetting to shoot the pistol that she still clutched in her right hand she launched herself at the zed, pounding at its face and neck in a brutal attack.  The red mist that had followed Beck all of her life and that had caused so many problems, arrests and fights descended on her, clouding her vision and pumping her full of adrenaline. Shoulder wound forgotten she tore at the face of the zombie with the nails of her left hand while using the butt of the pistol in her right to club the forehead of the deader.

Tonya smashed her elbow into the face of papa bear, breaking its nose and driving the bones and blood into the skull and forcing the zombie away from her. Baby bear slashed its nails across her toned stomach drawing a burning trail of bloody tracks along the soft flesh. Forcing her way to her feet she kicked the little bastard in the face knocking it on its ass. Gritting her teeth against the pain of her injury, she took to her heels and sprinted out of the compound.  Looking over her shoulder she saw the large form of papa bear slump to the floor as its head filled with bone fragments and blood, the rest of the clan chased after Tonya. Glancing round she could see the town filling with the groaning forms of the undead, ahead was a large car dealership, Tonya snorted in wonder - bizarrely in this two horse town they had a massive Lexus showroom! Shaking her head in astonishment she headed toward it wondering where the hell Beck had got to….

The sound of the pistol smashing into the face of the male zombie was matched by the ugly grunting noise coming from Beck’s throat as she drove the tempered steel of the 9mm into the nose of the zed over and over.  Beck was lost, the red mist had draped over her, narrowing her vision to this one epitome of the entire zombie apocalypse squirming underneath her. Smash/grunt, smash/grunt, smash/grunt… All thoughts of her friend Tonya was subsumed by the need to destroy this abomination. Smash/grunt, smash/grunt… the squirming had stopped some time ago but that fact had not registered with Beck as her famed temper demanded that she utterly destroy this filth. Smash/grunt… The former hooker oblivious to all but the red ruin of the creature below failed to notice the shadows of the former inhabitants of Shitsville as they closed in around her.

Tonya stopped at the big glass windows of the dealership, sitting inside the huge bays were the newest models. Big, gleaming machines, testament to the engineering prowess of the former dominant species of the planet. The ownership of one of these fine, expensive automobiles once signified that you had made it, reached the top of the American Dream. Now they just signified escape, a way of getting her and Beck out of this nightmare, she had to find her BFF and get the hell out.  Low groans and shuffling feet from every direction caused her to spin around raising her pistol in a two handed grip, she snatched at the trigger dropping the closest zed and shifted slightly to her right to switch to the next target and gazed into the empty eyes of her closest, bestest of all friends…..

So ends my first, but certainly not my last game of ATZ- the Board Game. All in all I enjoyed it, I forgot to use my rerolls half the time and we forgot the rules or misinterpreted quite a few which slowed the game down a bit too much, but that should get slicker with practice no doubt. The fact that it doesn't take up much room and the board can be put away between campaign sessions rather than a 3’x3’ board (or 4’x4’ in my case) that takes hours to sort out etc is a big plus. My ATZ FFO games are on my modular boards and use my scratch built hospital and other terrain pieces to bring a visual cinematic feel to it, whereas the board game forces you to use your imagination to bring it to life something that I enjoy doing so didn't detract from the playing experience only enhanced it for me. The campaign story in the back of the book is really good and that's what I'll start doing when I come back to the game, reviving Beck and Tonya and starting again, the tabletop version is a bit more flexible in that you can design the scenarios to suit your campaign and the direction you want to take it in.

All in all I liked it and as I say I will be coming back to the game but will be playing solo, which I think will be better. I think I prefer ATZFFO for the flexibility but I can see me reaching for the board game on those proverbial rainy days and whiling away a few hours immersed in the campaign.

Talking of ATZFFO, with Zombtober around the corner I thought I would, in my very limited free time start a new storyline.  I'm very fortunate that I'm able to leave my table set ups out for any length of time in da Grotto so I'm going to take my time and develop the story over the next few months and dip into it when I get a spare few minutes.  As AARs take a great deal of time and effort don't expect a report every week so the story will be interspersed with my usual Bushido posts and other hobby news plus of course with Zombtober there will be some painting of zombies and survivors to come although because of my non-hobby commitments it won't be anywhere near my usual output.  The story, unusually for a zombie apocalypse will be set here in leafy England which will require some adjustment to the rules particularly around firearms which are rarer here although not as rare as people think and it will star a character based on a certain Student Paramedic.....

As a taster this is a picture of the first gameboard

Hope you enjoy
dGG

ATZ the Board Game - batrep

Hi all

The story so far, it is day 26 post apocalypse and Tonya and Beck arrive in a nameless town looking for weapons to bolster their meagre supply. Both are armed with a 9mm pistol, Beck carries extra ammo and Tonya carries a first aid kit. So here we go.....

Tonya glided gracefully forward, moving almost silently her pistol held in a two handed grip like on a cheesy cop show. By comparison Beck, despite being deceptively quick felt like a lumbering buffalo, it seemed her two left feet would find every imperfection in the road, crunching down on empty coke cans and broken glass making a riot of sound that seemed to carry to every corner of the main strip, her pistol dangling by her side as she tried desperately not to fall over her own awkward limbs - or at least so it seemed to her compared to the achingly beautiful, almost ethereal Tonya.

“Have you seen any of those dead’uns Ton?” Beck asked in a loud stage whisper that echoed all around, causing Tonya to wince in anticipation of an avalanche of undead responding to Beck’s booming voice. As if on cue, a tortured groan came from across the asphalt car park that they had been traversing and a single zombie stumbled out from behind a dumpster.

“Ahh it's just the one Ton, we can handle that easy, yeah?” Tonya rolled her eyes at the flat out challenge to the fates laid down by her friend, flicking the safety off of her Glock. Almost immediately another groan and another zombie appeared behind the first, followed by another and another.  Similar moans and shuffling from behind and to the sides indicated  that they were surrounded by the infected.

“You just had to say it didn't ya Beck!” Tonya huffed as she sprinted toward the closest building away from the zombies.  “Let's just grab some guns and get the f**k out of here!”

Beck blinked twice, her BFF was stunningly gorgeous, angelic even, but sheesh what a potty mouth…. Running to catch her up she reached the doorway just Beck heard the sharp crack of Tonya’s firearm. Dashing through the door she quickly took in the scene. The house was in an old western style and looked like an old ranch house with a big open plan ground floor, by the fireplace, which was big enough to step into was the remains of a zombie with a neat hole in its forehead and a less neat but far bigger hole in the back of its skull where Tonya’s 9mm bullet had exited. In the middle of the room Beck’s friend was struggling to keep another 3 of his buddies from ripping her to pieces and barely succeeding as fresh blood poured down her left arm from a laceration.  [Stefan had moved into the nearest house drawing a zombie card and getting 4, he managed to gun one down before engaging in melee, he couldn't kill a zed and ended up being wounded] Raising her own pistol with shaking hands, Beck discharged a shot before she could aim properly and the round slammed into the thigh of the closest zombie, tearing a huge chunk of muscle away from the bone but doing nothing more than turn its attention to Beck. Gulping visible, she backed away tripping on the rug and banging her head on the doorframe. [I had moved into the house as well, missed with my own shot and also got wounded in melee – bad start]

With a roar Tonya heaved at the zombies struggling to bite down on her succulent flesh, creating a tiny gap. Stepping back she gained yet more space and used it to clear the couch in a quick dive, rolling passed Beck and running for the door. Reaching out a hand she grabbed the startled Beck and dragged her away from the approaching zombies and out into the daylight.

Outside Beck could see that the zombies that had been chasing them were closing in. Lifting her pistol, she pulled the trigger twice in quick succession, dropping the closest zed with two in the head. A loud report behind her followed by the thud of a body hitting the floor told her that Tonya had taken another dead head out.  Tonya strode quickly forward, picking up a brick from a pile of rubble and smashed it into the leering face of a zombie closing in a little too fast. The rest of the zeds stalled in their advance and seemed to hang back at this show of aggression giving the girls a chance to slip away from the press of bodies.  [the zeds didn't move this turn and Stefan and I both dropped a zombie with pistol fire with Stefan killing another in melee. The noise of the shooting generated another zed] Beck spotted another zombie crawling out from behind a dumpster in front of the running women and squeezed off another two rounds throwing it backwards and causing it to fall into the dumpster with its feet up in the air. “Taking out the trash!” Beck cried out, causing Tonya to wince at the terrible joke.

Beck ran on, shooting almost wildly but still managing to fell another zed. Tonya peeled off to the left and gunned down a female zomb lurking on the porch of a nearby house before racing after the stocky figure of her friend. The strange lethargy that surrounded the zombies dissipated and they started to move towards the young women, three of them heading towards Tonya. Whipping around quickly, the lithe ex-dancer lazily extended her arm and the Glock barked twice dropping one before being herded towards a large metal building in the middle of town. Beck managed to squeeze another round from her 9mm before the hammer clicked down on empty but not before her shot took another zombie off its feet. [despite getting several hits with their pistols both Stefan and I characters somehow generated a zombie for each shot and we were slowly getting herded into the corner.]

Beck ran into Meemo’s bar thinking that she would be able to grab the obligatory sawn off that was bound to be stashed under the counter.  Inside the gloomy interior, she blinked to clear the dazzling sunlight out of her eyes, making out four shadowy figures groaning and moaning in the now very familiar sounds of the undead. Pulling the trigger of her nine, she had forgotten that it was unloaded and with a mounting horror she realised the level of trouble she was in as a dry clicking was all that the pistol managed to produce. Stumbling backwards she was attacked by the four zombies all rushing towards her, mouths wide open ready to bite. The first was on her almost immediately and she ducked under the outstretched arms of the foul creature backing toward the door of the bar,  fumbling for a fresh clip for her firearm. The second zed scratched a long wound down her forearm with a ragged nail, drawing a streak of hot, fresh blood out and onto the wooden floor with a audible splatter. [This meant that Beck was wounded and that she now had to flip her card over to the wounded side,  meaning her stats change for the worse] Sharp cracks from outside followed by the muffled thump of a large object hitting the floor told Beck her friend had picked off more of the filthy creatures.

The scratch down her arm was burning now and her hand was shaking as she tried to lift her pistol. Snatching at the trigger, she tried to gun down the zed who had wounded her,  almost crying as the rounds slammed into the floor by the feet of the dead ‘un.  “Fuck off!” She screamed at the monster with all her frustration and anger that had built up over the last few weeks.  The sheer volume of the shout stopped  the zombie in its tracks and it stood a few feet away blinking at her stupidly [the zeds didn't activate this turn…]. With tears of pain pouring down her cheeks, she spun on her heel and dove for the door, a mild regret of not having searched the building nagging in the back of brain, while the rest, the more survival orientated part was urging her to get out, make speed, gain distance….

to be continued...
hope you enjoy
dGG

ATZ - the Board Game part 1

Hi all

****WARNING NON BUSHIDO POST****WARNING NON BUSHIDO POST****WARNING N

Hahahaha yes shockingly this post is not about Bushido, instead it incorporates the unboxing of All Things Zombie (ATZ) the board game, published in 2009 by Lock and Load. The game is by Two Hour Wargames and Ed Texiera as the designer.  I was the very lucky (and grateful) recipient of the largesse by the lovely Gilberts of “The Gamers Cupboard” fame. It won’t be a comprehensive review of the game as I will leave these things to the experts of which there are many including our very own Bryan “Vampifan” Scott, who could and probably have taken the game through it’s paces, I have a feeling that it has been rewritten as well.  I’m also going to run through in the form of a batrep the first scenario from the game that I played recently with my son.

Inside the game you have five white dice and one black, a full-colour manual with all of the rules in it. You have cards for each of the set characters with all of their profiles and gaming stats on.  There is a turn on track, with which you can mark your progress (I’m not sure if the scenarios require limited turns but it’s there should you need it.  Also you get a pack of cards for randomising the amount of zombies that spawn in an area and some loot cards for when you explore buildings. There is a full set of card counters all in colour and printed on very thick card which is very durable.  There are two double sided playing mats printed on the same card and marked out with hexes all given a specific designation and with buildings covering the board.  Lastly you also get a a quick reference guide, this has on it the insight reaction test, received fire reaction test and other valuable information.

As stated earlier we will playing the first scenario – “For a Few Minutes More”, set on Apocalypse Day +26. Stefan will be playing Tonya who is a “star” and I will be playing Beck her sidekick and buddy, who is a “grunt” but for ease I will be playing as a “star” and we will both be competing against the zombies controlled by the game mechanics.  The idea of the scenario is for the girls to explore the buildings on the map until they both find a weapon or they have searched all of the buildings and escaped off the map edge.

Tonya strode down the dusty road as if it were the Strip back in Vegas, larger than life and as bold as she ever was back in the day before the world blew to hell.  Beck snuck an admiring glance at her friend, trying to emulate the confident and graceful stride that Tonya seemed to effortlessly pull off.  The girls had been moving constantly since the early days of the Apocalypse and the end of humanity as the dominant species on the planet.  Moving during the day and fortifying whatever shelter they could find at night, barely sleeping and always on high alert, they were exhausted.  Not that you would know from looking at Tonya, Beck reflected ruefully, Tonya looked like she had just woken from a solid ten hour slumber – bright eyed and bushy tailed! Only the grime on her clothes and the 9mm in her right hand betrayed the recent turn of events and stopped her friend from looking like she had stepped out of the pages of a magazine. “Well maybe ‘Guns and Ammo’ magazine at least” Beck mused with a snort and a supressed laugh, earning her a quizzical look from her BFF.  This only made Beck laugh harder as she bent over holding her sides, every enquiring look and now clear exasperation from Tonya made it worse until tears rolled down Beck’s filthy face leaving tracks of clean skin down her sunburned cheeks.

Several minutes later she managed to reduce the noise of her raucous laughter down to a few little hiccups and snorts, much to the annoyance of her friend, when she heard the first shuffles and moans of nearby zombies.  “Damn it Beck” Tonya sighed, pulling the slide on her pistol and checking to make sure a round was chambered.  Eyes up and scanning the girls moved into survival mode and headed toward the nearby residence.

That's it for this post, next one is the batrep - stay tuned!

hope you enjoy

dGG

Christmas comes early!

hi all

The post title says it all really, Christmas has come early for da Gobbo! This weekend i've been on night shifts, which are always busy and always a real pain - this time literally as I'm currently suffering with some low back pain.  So I wake up Saturday afternoon after grabbing a few hours sleep in between shifts and come downstairs to a lovely surprise - two brown boxes through the mail. 

The first was an act of such generosity as to leave me quite humbled, those rather amazing gamers from across the Irish Sea at the Gamers Cupboard (if you love this hobby at all you need to check these guys out Here, the passion with which all of the contributors of this blog - Steve, Hils, Tarot and of course the undead King Bryan, exhibit toward gaming is palpable) sent me a copy of "All Things Zombie" the board game.  Knowing that I play the ATZ miniatures game and love me some solo gaming as well as involving my family in Zed boardgaming, they sent me a copy!  I haven't unboxed it properly as I'm still on nights at the time of writing this post (and still will be when I post it on Monday)  That unboxing will likely form a post all of its own as will my first solo game.  But to say i'm grateful is a massive understatement. Thank you Steve and Hils, you guys absolutely ROCK!!

The second box held some goodies that I had ordered for the Nerd Herd when we go to shows and soon to be going to tournaments.  A little design work and finding the right image, which may be a bit familiar now and I came up with these T-shirts...

Each of us - Rich, Chris, Damon and myself have one, with our names and gaming nicknames printed on them to individualise them properly. I can't wait to get some use out it!!

I think they've come out really well!  yes that's me styling it out with my self satisfied, it must be Christmas smile...

that's it for now, hope you enjoy
dGG