Zombtober week 3

this week's offering is back to the zombies and I've managed to paint a whole slew of 'em! All from the wargames factory vixens box set and a really great addition to the hoard, which now stands at a rather paltry 45 (but healthier than september's tally of 28) Plus I painted up a dog figure from Warlords ancient Britons range, he will be used as one of the random events in ATZ. I do apologise for the poor photos, I most definitely am not a photographer. I will however post an action shot of the hoard at the end of Zombtober with a better background as well...

day 21 part 2

It was mid afternoon when the small group reached the outskirts of town, there had been a handful of zombies that had barely slowed the girls down as they journeyed the short distance from Ling Mei's building.  In the mid distance the huge satellite dish that broadcast the news and weather reports rose high above the buildings on top of Jungville Hill.  The Jungville tunnel running beneath it, gaping ominously and seemingly filled with danger and potentially zombies.  

With a swift action Ling Mei drew her bow and released a shaft at a zed 25 yards across the junction.  With a solid thunk the arrow pierced the zombie's forehead and it dropped to the floor without a further sound.  Looking around their were no more of the undead in sight and the group sprinted across the broken ground around the train yard.   Making good time the women sped toward the hill, the TV station loomed ever closer.  

Ling Mei, glanced behind her, in her haste to get to the girl she had outpaced the others and they were strung out in a line stretching several yards back with Debbie bringing up the rear.  "Damn" she whispered under her breath, slowing down. She did not want another incident happening and opened her mouth to gee the others up and close the gaps.

RING! RING! RING! a strident cell phone ringtone split the quiet air startling the group and causing them to look around frantically for the culprit.  Debbie spotted the small, black object lying in the grass and rushed to it, to try and silence it before it attracted unwanted attention from passing zombies.  As she reached the phone and switched off the ringing, she noticed some movement in the bushes across from her.  Glancing frantically around her she saw two muscular young men with huge mo-hawks and equally huge firearms rise up from behind the shrubs and a further two emerging from behind the phone box....

day 21 - don't blame it on the weathergirl...

"and the power outages around the city continue as the military and police struggle to contain the infected.  Mayor Alexander stated in his broadcast 'the citizenry must not panic, everything is under control!' ha ha that doesn't seem to be the case to this old reporter Mr Mayor.  Now over to our weathergirl - Stacey Raines."

"Thanks Bob, the weather has been particularly dry this.....what the hell is that! aaaaarrggh! Kevin get off Bob! what are you doing? stop biting him! stop...no don't look at me like that, no don't come over here....this is Stacey Raines running away! if you hear this broadcast - help me!!"

Juliana Jones crossed the small living room of her apartment, to the TV and switched it off with a snarl.  "I think we should go over to the studios and help her!" she said to the room in general.  Ling Mei sat in the window seat looking out into the streets as she had done since the death of her beloved landlord a week ago.  The tears had dried days ago but the aching hole in her heart was a constant reminder of her loss.  Debbie shot her a glance as she replied to JJ's statement "It's dangerous out there JJ and only getting worse" 

"Ha, of course it's dangerous out there Debs, but we can't sit here with no food or water waiting to die." JJ shot back.

"don't call me Debs! Listen, i don't want to shrivel and die here either but how is rescuing the bimbo going to help our situation?"

Ling Mei stood in a swift, fluid motion.  Striding across the room to the pile of weapons, she grabbed her swords and bow.  "We save the girl, grab some supplies and smash any of those dead bastards along the way!"

day15 conclusion

"To judge a man by his weakest link or deed is like judging the power of the ocean by one wave" Elvis Presley

What a game! it only lasted 5 turns but they were all bad.  after the first move onto the board there were zombies everywhere.  JJ and Debbie arguing because of a random event attracted even more zeds and they began charging in from all over.  The group's shooting was poor or they could not activate and even Ling Mei who is a monster in melee could only knock down or battle zeds to a draw.  In the meantime a group of zeds charged them from the rear and it was inevitable that something bad would happen.  JJ fought like a tiger, Debbie cleared her opponent, but Ling Mei got locked into combat and that meant poor rep 3 Nash got munched as he was isolated at the rear of the group. with no help forthcoming, the zed that knocked him OOF began to snack on the aged lounge singer.  After his death JJ failed her man down and ran off the board.  With two heroes out of the encounter i had no choice but to turn tail and run, while the zombies consumed Nash..... 

absolutely gutted for the loss of the Elvis impersonator, i love the model and i thought it gave the story and the campaign some extra texture.

Following the encounter I did not need to roll for keeping it together as Ling Mei had done really well previously and no one lost any rep for the failed mission.  However the gang were a man down and morale had hit rock bottom.

ambition

I have got an ambitious project in mind.  Recently my terrain board posts have been put aside due to my enthusiasm for ATZ.  I had planned to post about how i put together the rest of my boards - the train station and the canal, but i've kind of been taken over with the need to post batreps about Ling Mei's struggles.  These terrain posts will follow later on i'm sure but in the mean time i've been thinking about a new board.  

The new board will be purely for ATZ rather than shared with my Bolt Action games and will substitute in for the radar station/hilltop.  So what i've decided to make is a hospital board, this was partly inspired by fellow blogger posts, partly by my job role and of course it is iconic in the zombie genre. I'm going to pretty much fill the whole 2' x 2' so it's a huge project, especially as i'm thinking basement and a 1st floor as well as ground floor!

First things first was to sketch out a floor plan of the way i want it to look ideally.  Then I need to get the material to build it! During that time i'm going to scour the interwebs for the bits and pieces to fill it! Paramedics, doctors, nurses, patients and their zombie equivalents, hospital beds, office furniture, library book stacks, tables, chairs, ambulances and the list goes on.....

So what do you think? I'm already starting to question my sanity! The design will no doubt change a bit when I draw it onto the board. I'm already rethinking doing a basement as the boards are 30mm deep and I need 40mm per story so it means only partially sinking the basement, will that look odd?  But basements are atmospheric and do I want to lose the morgue? Some of the smaller offices might be joined as they won't get figs in otherwise. The lift shaft will get smaller (or will it, should I leave it bigger?) should I have stairs going down to the basement or just leave it as a lift? Aaarrrggghhh!!!

Zombtober week 2

This week's offering are a couple of groups of humans - survivors and cops! All made from the Wargames Factory sets I bought recently.  Firstly the survivors! My family and I have naturally discussed our escape/survival plan for the Z apocalypse, so I thought I would put together a family of survivors, all tough as nails and as white trash as you like - the family that fights together, stays together!! Meet ma & pa Simpson, jr and the twins. A proper introduction will follow when I post the recent bat rep involving these guys.  Note pa's vest with the Flash logo, the Flash is my fave superhero so i wanted to represent!

The second group were cops painted up to look like UK police officers, as a member of the emergency services I have a massive respect for the thin blue line that keeps us safe and now these come with big guns too!  Led by a member of CID (Criminal Investigation Department) unlike most British officers these guys are packing heat, of course i can always use them in an American setting too.

Day 15 - Take back and tragedy

Pain blossomed in his chest, like a huge weight sitting on his sternum.  Nash "Elvis" Hambleton looked furtively around the room to see if anyone had noticed his grimace of agony.  With a shaky hand he wiped away the sweat from his forehead.  The pain was there most days now, easing but never truly retreating.  Fortunately the argument raging in Ling Mei's little apartment was distracting the others from his discomfort.  With a cough to try and shift the lump in his throat he addressed the small band of friends in an attempt to calm them down.

"Now, now little ladies, uh huh yeah.  Let's have a little less conversation, a little more action please!"  delivered with his soft southern accent and the authority of his years, the aged lounge singer cut through the tension in the room.  "I think Ling Mei has a point, those unholy beasts are starting to gather around here more and more. We're trapped in a world that's troubled with pain. As long as a man has the strength to dream, he can redeem his soul and fly- he sang. So lets boogie on out of here and exit this Heartbreak Hotel...."  Looking around the room at the smiles he knew he had won them over to Ling Mei, their leader's argument to look for a safe place to hole up.  Confident from their last encounters with the zombies they looked like they could take on the world, well armed as they were he thought they just might! "Why don't we head on over to the factory on the upper east side, like we discussed?  the high fences and razor wore should keep out those sorry ol' Hound dogs!"  

Nash looked from face to face, noting Ling Mei's nod of gratitude for his support and the grim determination of the other two friends - Juliana and Debbie.  Checking their weapons they headed out on foot, figuring to scout out the industrial district without risking their precious supplies.  On the street a handful of zombies meandered aimlessly about.  The nearest zed, a youth dressed in skater gear turned toward them and received an arrow in the eye for his trouble, dropping soundlessly to the floor.  Nash gulped visibly at the casual dispatch of what was once a young guy who may, in what seemed like a life time ago have been old enough to be his son.  The pain came once again to the fore, causing him to breathe hard and loud.  Ling Mei shot him a worried glance and he shook his head and gestured for her to go onward.

Gliding like a swan on tranquil water, Ling Me's effortlessly moved up the street with JJ and Debbie behind, the young ladies bickering loudly as they went - a little too loudly!  Nash grit his teeth and tried to will his arms and legs to move, finally getting them to obey his commands even though it felt like he was wading through knee high mud.  Maybe they should have hunkered down a bit longer he thought as he tried to catch up to the others.  "Maybe i should try to find some aspirin" was the next thought.... "damn this hurts!" was the last thought as he stumbled to his knees.  As he went down he saw zombies gathering from a side alley behind the girls, who were oblivious to their presence! With a massive effort of will he hurled himself forward, managing to get to his feet and stagger a couple of paces, with a cry of pain and distress he lifted his right hand that was filled with his precious army colt and shaking with the effort of lifting the weighty firearm.  Ahead the noise of his cry caused the girls to turn in time to receive the zombies charge.

With a whirl of blades Ling Mei, kept two of the foul undead at bay.  The points of the twin swords poking and probing but not doing any serious damage.  JJ shrieked like a banshee as she stove in the forehead of the zombie she was facing with the butt of her shotgun, lifting her arms above her head in a victory pose over the broken form of the octogenarian she had battered to the floor.  Debbie ducked her shoulder to avoid the grasp of her opponent before jamming her big sigsauer into it's abdomen and blasting the spine out of it's back before crushing it's head under the heel of her boot. 

Nash bit his lip in frustration as one of the zeds peeled away and headed toward him.  The weight of his pistol kept dragging his aim off as the pain in his chest was expanding at a rapid rate.  As the zombie got closer, the more the pain spread into his neck and down his arm.  With a sigh, he slid to the floor, the world went dark and the last sight he saw was the broken puppet like movement of the zed who loomed over him......

Ling Mei dispatched the last of the nearest zombies with ease, the blade slicing easily through the scrawny neck of the old man in front of her.  Looking up the high street she saw a dark mass of zombies shuffling toward her, damn she thought, glancing around at her friends.  JJ and Debbie were not looking at the approaching hoard of monsters however and she peered past them only to see the sight of her landlord's body being ripped apart by a zombie in a tattered nightgown. 

"No!" the word almost silent as she couldn't find the breath to form it properly.  With a snarl she lifted her swords and crossed the distance between them in the blink of an eye, bringing the sharp blades down and severing the zed's head in a single blow.  Tears coursed down her face as she smashed the swords over and over into the dead woman's body, slashing and tearing at the creature until nothing but a shattered carcass lay on the tarmac by her friend's still form.

A tug on her shoulder brought her to her senses, Debbie was urging her to get up and start running.  the zombie hoard was yards away and moaning loudly in anticipation of the warm flesh to come.  JJ was already in full stride, howling her grief.  With a last look at Nash's gaunt face, Ling Mei started to run after her friends.