Eastside Refinery

We had another game night date night a couple weeks ago.  We used the same characters we had last time.

E - Rep 5 Civilian, BA Pistol, Knife, No Attributes
D - Rep 5 Civilian, Shotgun, Cricket Bat, No Attributes

We decided to do an urban discover scenario based loosely on the area where we live.  About half a mile away from us is a huge refinery.  It is surrounded by urban neighborhoods and major streets.  I have a bunch of refinery-like scenery from my 40K days so I was able to cobble together a reasonable modern refinery.  I used some house ruins to represent the edge of our neighborhood and my roads for the city streets.  The grey 'pavement' under the refinery is foam sheets I picked up at Hobby Lobby.  I used the black version of this same stuff to make my roads.  I wish I had some chain link fence to put along the road at the edge of the pavement but I have not modeled any yet.  New project I suppose...

The Eastside Refinery

We decided the party would move onto the table along the main street, coming in from the 'West'.  ('North' is the top of the table in the above pic)  We rolled 2d6+2 for starting zeds in an urban area and got 7.  We used a scatter die to place them and ended up with three pairs of zombies roughly surrounding the party and one straggler behind some barrels.

D and E move onto the table

Street Level View

You can see my ruined houses have that Gothic 40K look.  I really need to develop more modern scenery.  I should also get some kind of backdrop for my photos.  Having my living room in the background spoils the mood...

Turn 1 - Initiative roll:  Humans 3, Zombies 2
D and E decide to cut to their right and take out the two zeds there.  They Fast Move.  Both pass 2d6 and easily charge the zeds.  The zombies are overwhelmed and taken down without incident. (both D and E win the combats in the first round of rolling.)  The remaining zombies shamble towards D and E, moaning as they come.

Two quick dead zeds

Turn 2 -  H 4, Z 3
D and E Fast Move again, heading towards the big fuel tank.  They hope to loop around it, evading zombies and head toward the ruined house in the North East corner of the table.  E passes 2d6 and easily reaches the tall tank.  D passes only 1d6 and struggles to keep up.  Typical...  The zombies continue to shamble after the humans, intent on their prey.

E darts between the tanks, running easily

D Plods along behind, still visible to the zeds

Turn 3 - H 1, Z 4
The zombies continue to pursue the humans.  D and E move to the door of the maintenance shed near the tanks.  They both prep weapons to storm through the door...

What's inside?  Loot or a sticky end?

The zeds are unsure where the humans went but head in the direction they were last seen.

Turn 4 - H 6, Z 1
D and E hesitate to open the door.  They check weapons again and take a deep breath.  The zombies continue to close on the spot where the humans were last seen.

Turn 5 - H 3, Z 5
The zombies realize their prey has evaded them.  They pause, confused, and moan.  D and E enter the shed.  We drew a Risks and Rewards card and found a Rep 4 Survivor armed with a machine pistol.  Immediately E turned on the charm and won the Meet and Greet by two successes.  Rufus decides to join our group!  "Thank God you're here," he says.  "I thought I was all alone."  Rummaging around, D finds a can of baked beans. (1 Food)

Turn 6 - H 6, Z 5
D and E take a little time to get to know Rufus.  Just small talk while he gathers his things.  The zeds, their prey having avoided them, take to shambling aimlessly.
 
Turn 7 - H 1, Z 5
The zombies continue to do nothing, waiting in the silence to hear their next victim.  The humans move quickly out of the maintenance shed and head towards a smaller storage tank to the east.  The plan is to loop around the tank and continue to head towards the ruined house.

Making a break for it

Aaaarrrgh...where did they go?

Turn 8 - H 6, Z 1
The humans pause, listening.  It seems quiet...too quiet...  The zombies may have heard the door of the shed swing shut.  The zeds begin to move with purpose again.

Zombies close on last know human location

Turn 9 - H 4, Z 5
Once again the zeds get confused and pause.  The humans move into the shelter of the small tank.  D takes lead while E covers him.  Rufus covers the party's rear.

It's quiet...too quiet...

Turn 10 - H 6, Z 2
Once again the humans hesitate.  Something just doesn't feel right.  It's too easy...  The zombies again begin their wandering hunt.

At this point we had a little debate.  We were headed towards the ruined house but I was wanting more to explore and discover.  Between us and the house was a collection of 55 gallon drums.  We decided that this would be considered like a building.  In other words, when we moved into the area of the barrels we would draw a Risks and Rewards card as if searching a building.  It seemed likely to me that there would be something among those barrels...

Turn 11 - H 3, Z 3 Reroll - H 3 Z 1
The humans move to the barrels and we draw a card.  5 zombies burst from the barrels as we begin searching!  We roll for surprise.  The zeds get a 9.  D gets a 9, E gets 7 and Rufus gets 6.  We get jumped!  Rufus is attacked by a surfer zed wearing nothing but swim trunks.  He ends up locked in melee after a long series of rolls (0 successes after 6 rounds).  E is attacked by two of the beasts leaping over the barrels.  Quick like lightning, she knifes one in the eye (2 successes in first round).  The second proves a little more difficult but she eventually manages to put it down (1 success after 3 rounds).  D is less successful.  He is also attacked by two monsters and puts the first down with a quick swat of his bat (1 success after 1 round) but before he can turn to the other it knocks him down and bites his shoulder, preparing to tear him apart.  (D goes OOF after 1 round).

Crap!  They're everywhere!

It's a bloodbath.

Turn 12 - H 3, Z 6
At the moment of victory, the zeds hesitate, perhaps gloating over their prey.  Rufus continues to fight the zed he is tangled with.  He manages to avoid being bitten but he can't seem to put it down.  "Get it off me!  Get it off me!" he screams (0 successes after 3 rounds).  The zed who put D OOF is standing over him with his back to E preparing to dive into the feast.  E springs into action and puts her knife through the base of its skull.  It drops without a sound.  (E pops the weasel).

Turn 13 - H 2, Z 2 Reroll - H 6, Z 4
Stunned by the attack, shaking with adrenaline and fear as she watches D bleed from the shoulder wound, E does nothing for a moment.  Rufus fights desperately for his life as the zed renews its attack on him.  He struggles to get his hands around its neck and twisting, twisting, twisting he finally manages to put the thing down (1 success after 3 MORE rounds).  The rest of the zombies on the table amble around aimlessly.

This is not good.

The zed menace leaves no time for mourning.

Turn 14 - H 5, Z 6
Everyone pauses to catch their breath...

Turn 15 - H 1, Z 5
The zombies are purposeless now and return to their default mode:  standing and staring, slack jawed, occasionally emitting a low moan  As she stoops to help D, E sees a BA pistol stuck in the belt of the zed that wounded him.  She grabs this and tucks it into her belt.  Rufus walks over and looks at E kneeling beside D.  D is bleeding badly.  "You got a place to hole up?" he asks.  "Yeah, not far from here," says E her voice flat.  "We can take care of him there," she adds.  They both know what this means. 

Turn 16 - H 3, Z 4
Rufus and E lift D and head east, leaving the table and ending the game.

Since she had killed a zombie and found a resource we rolled for E to advance.  Unfortunately she did not.  We rolled for recovery for D who did recover, regaining consciousness without losing Rep.  Then came the most important roll of the whole game:  infection.  D couldn't hack it and as one might expect from such a wound, he was infected.

A word to the wise here:  in ATZ there is no reason to go looking for trouble.  Trouble is usually just around every corner.  If you find yourself in a game that seems too easy, just wait, it will likely get much more difficult very shortly.  In hindsight I wish I had left the barrels well enough alone...

At this point I asked my sweetie if she wanted to keep me around as a pet zombie or put me down.  She made the hard call and decided to end my undead life.  She made Rufus do the dirty work.

"This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it hurts me."

Once again we had a lot of fun.  The game started slow and seemed like it might end up like the last cake walk we had but true to ATZ style it all changed in a heart beat.  The picture in my head of those zeds leaping out of the barrels is my favorite moment.  The stuff of the best B horror films.  It stinks that D was lost but E will carry on.  She is now the leader of a small group, just her and Rufus, but with the skills she has gained I'm sure her party will grow.