All Things Zombie!

I played my first real game of All Things Zombie - final fade out (ATZFFO) today. I had a little go at it with my family a couple of days ago just to get a feel of the rules and got the melee rules wrong.  Re-reading the rules I think I have them a bit more coherently in my head now.

So it was time to play the Day One scenario. Of course before that I have to meet the star of my apocalypse!  I have a few survivor minis so decided to roll up the random attribute and think about which mini it fitted best. I rolled up and got "agile" no worries I have a great model in mind, I added "fast" and Ling Mei - the ex gymnast, Kung fu student was born.  I love this mini from Hasslefree, she comes with twin swords so that's what she's kitted out with, counting as a two handed weapon when used together (my own rule!) and I added a samurai bow (compound bow) although I haven't got a model one yet until I can either craft one or dig one out my bits box... With some power bars, mineral water, first aid kit from her gym and cash; she comes with one food, one meds and one luxury.  She has left her SUV at home (the parking is prohibitive at the gym) which is half filled and has a Big Ass Pistol (BAP) at home as well.  I wanted her to start as rep 4, I know I can make her rep 5 but I didn't want to super power her too early.

She also needs a Scooby gang so I rolled up some random grunts and picked survivor minis to match.  First of all was rep 4 Debbie (don't call me Debs!) Wills, an ambidextrous, twin BAP wielding Selene wannabe with the runt attribute, she is Ling Mei's bff and flatmate. Next is her buddy, rep 3 Juliana Jones a fun loving teen, packing a shotgun, pistol and a whip (counts as improvised) she sees the apocalypse as a great big adventure. Finally we have rep 3 Nash "Elvis" Hambleton, a faded lounge singer and Ling Mei's landlord, he comes packing a BAP and his steel guitar (improvised weapon)

Tiles in progress photos

I thought I would show the different stages of how I put together the terrain tiles I've been working on. The first one was the factory tile.

The tile is 3mm MDF strengthened by a wooden frame, I wanted the tiles to be able to be placed in any direction so there would be a road connection in the middle of each edge. The roads are cobblestone effect plastic sheets from Amera plastics - very inexpensive at £2 a sheet. The paths were made of foam sheets and with the slabs carved in with a ballpoint pen.

 

The fence was scratch built matchsticks and covered by a netting type fabric before being spray painted and then drybrushed and finally hot glued into place. The barb wire I scratch built using a tutorial I found online from a model railway enthusiast. It was so cheap to make - about £1 compared to 5 or 6 times that for shop bought from army painter for the amount I needed!

A small breach in the fence following an explosion nearby!

The finished tile with the medium factory and power plant from sarissa precision (now painted) I've just got to add some power lines, which I have ready just need to base them.

Terrain boards

So not so much a blog post as some pictures of the urban gaming boards I have scratch built recently. I've been heavily into Bolt Action lately so decided to build some modular boards 2'x2' that can be moved about to create different layouts. I've done 4 so far, a rail station, factory section and a middle class section. The fourth is a mountain base, complete with radar station (not shown as it is being painted at the moment!) currently working on a canal section... All the buildings are from sarissa and are cracking builds. The new section will be working class terraces from 4ground. The boards are expensive to build, mainly because of the buildings but I'm sure you'll agree look great!  I've also played my first games of All Things Zombies Final Fade Out on them and they worked really well.  I'm going to start a campaign and base it in mainland Europe as a bit of a change of pace for zombie apocalypse games so as to fit my terrain boards, it may look a bit strange with my minis but I'm gonna find some continental figs to fit me thinks!

Some of my urban terrain boards

Back again....maybe

Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012

Well it’s the New Year and hopefully 2012 will be a gala gaming year for da Gobbo.  Santa was very kind to me and brought many goodies to drool over.  A horde of zombies invaded the Grotto (well 28) a good start at least although now they are on the board (I’ve managed to paint 20 of them!) they look a little lost - even on a 4’x 4’ table; so many more required me thinks.  To balance the beasts, some beauty followed and a new Blood Bowl team arrived under the tree – the Alzuri Angels an all girl team of High Elves!  These plucky gals have been painted as well (I really got a lot of work done while off for Christmas), at least the starting 11 have been completed and are good to go when I finally get back to the games club.  The new boxed set of British Hussars galloped in and will be put on the painting back burner along with the other Black Powder stuff; at least until I can shift the other 8 zeds and 2 Elf catchers.  The project that will take the longest time to clear (especially as I’m now back to work!) will be the new 40k army – The Tau. 

Yes I’m now determined to fight for the “greater good” and have joined the growing fledgling empire of the plasma wielding, battlesuit wearing, jet pack using Tau.  Just writing that last sentence justifies why I fancied the Tau as my new 40k army.  Plasma guns, jet packs, skimmer battle tanks, giant mech suits and a brand new codex scheduled for some time this year – it’s all good!  The army suits my style of play with lots of ranged combat, reliance on technology and some really cool models.  A battleforce was the start and already I have painted the Devilfish and undercoated nearly all the rest!  I also got loads of vouchers so off down to the hobby store and a Hammerhead battletank has been added (got to have that railgun!) I had to have the codex even though it will be replaced early this year so I got onto Triple Helix war games and ordered one and another battleforce to finish the bulk of my army.  That should leave me in a relatively strong place with 24 F/warriors, 24 Kroot, 2 Devilfish, 6 Stealth suits and 2 Battlesuits as well as several gundrones.  With the Hammerhead it rounds out to about 1300 points which leaves me some points to spare on some other goodies such as pathfinders (already got the transport) or Vespids to kick some marine a**! I think though that I will wait to see what the new codex comes up with before committing any more gaming tokens toward it.  The models that I have got and those that are on order should keep me painting for a while anyway and it’ll give me some time to play with and get used to them (I have never even faced the Tau let alone fought with them….)

All in all it’s an exciting time hobby wise and I get wait to get stuck in!

Happy New Year

Tournament time

This weekend I played my first competitive tournament since I got back into the hobby.  Not that I have been a prolific tournament player in the past either so it was interesting to take part in as well as a learning curve.  The game was 40k – not on the top of my list of fave games having cut my teeth on WFB and now with the Napoleonics looming and my continued obsession with Zombie Apocalypse games; but still I’ve enjoyed playing some small games with Rich.  The problem is my lack of 40k models and a distinct lack of codexes.  I have got an Eldar army but it’s a bit light in the vehicle department and I don’t have a codex.  So I had to “compete” (I use that in the loosest of terms) with a makeshift space marine army with a borrowed codex from Rich.  The army was terribly unbalanced and I lacked the tools to do a decent job - very little anti-tank, almost no vehicles and no mobility.  It was all a little piecemeal and added to that my lack of competitive experience and 40k games under my belt I only managed a single draw!  That coupled with two losses meant that I was rock bottom on the day.  A very lowly position to find myself in indeed considering I have been gaming for ** years; in fact longer than at least two of the competitors have been alive….

Still the experience is all and I do love to play no matter what the outcome!  It was real fun playing against new opponents and new races/armies.  I got to see first hand how powerful the S/Wolves, B/Templars and the Necrons are and how important it is to have an army that you have created with the tactics you favour in mind. Da Gobbo has retreated back to his grotto to plot and scheme and paint an army ready for the next time.  Maybe a change is order though, something different, something which reflects me a little…..

Step forward the Tau!!