Over the river and through the woods...

This first battle report will be a modified Rescue scenario.  My characters need to get to Grammy's house and bring her back to the car to continue with their Day One 'errands'.  There are no gangers to confront but all Day One rules are in effect (ie - terrified civilians...<shudder>).
There is a car wreck at the entrance to the cul de sac where Grammy's house sits.  The cars are blocking the road and a mob of civilians who are screaming at each other stands nearby.  Sweet Pea and Monkey Boy will need to go on foot the last few hundred yards to Grammy's.

(I apologize for the poor pictures, I had to use my phone...our camera is not working correctly.)

Our heroes stats:
Sweet Pea - rep 3 civilian, 2xBA pistols, machete, no attributes
Monkey Boy - rep 3 civilian, pistol, hockey stick, athlete attribute.
They begin outside the car across the table from Grammy's house.  Both are stars for this scenario.

Turn 1 - Activation: Players 6, Zombies 6 (reroll: 3-4)
A group of terrified civilians that were standing around the wrecked cars arguing turns towards Sweet Pea and Monkey Boy and rush at them.  There are 4 civilians and since it was such an open space I said each hero must fight through 2 each.  They both manage to fend off the crazed humans and then move towards Grammy's house.

Turn 2 - Activation: P-5, Z-2
As Monkey Boy and Sweet Pea move through the lawn, 5 zombies appear as if from no where, rising from around the landscaping and well manicured yards.  Our heroes pause and look at these new arrivals, wondering, trying to figure out what they are up to.  Are these crazed humans like the last lot?  Or something worse?  The zombies stagger towards the heroes...

Turn 3 - Activation: P-3, Z-5

Our heroes move with caution (both failed fast move) and decide to go around the figures facing them.  They duck into a side yard, keeping their distance from the strangers.  The Zombies, apparently recently turned, seem confused and stare after the two humans...

Turn 4 - Activation: P-4, Z-5
Everyone hesitates...it's quiet...too quiet...what are these people doing?  Are these zombies?  Sweet Pea and Monkey Boy aren't sure how to proceed.  The zombies seem equally confused and begin to moan...

Turn 5 - Activation: P-2, Z-1
Sweet Pea and Monkey Boy know that sound from all the movies they've watched!  The moan of the zombies motivates them to quick action and both fast move (12") towards Grammy's house.  The sudden movement of their prey sparks the instincts of the zombies who turn to pursue, moaning as they close...

Turn 6 - Activation: P-3, Z-1
Sweet Pea reaches the door to Grammy's house and begins to ring the bell and knock.  (I ruled that Grammy would open the door in 1d3 activations and rolled a 1.  On the next active turn for our heroes Grammy will open the door.  Unfortunately Grammy doesn't move very quickly...)  Monkey Boy moves up to stand behind Sweet Pea, facing away from the house.  He draws his pistol and brandishes his hockey stick in the other hand.  "Stay back!", he shouts to the Zeds.  "Stay back or I'll shoot!"  As the Zeds move closer, Monkey Boy must take the Zed or No Zed test and manages to pass 2d6!  He suddenly realizes the very real danger he and his mom are in...  "We need to get Grammy and go!", he says.  "I know", Sweet Pea replies, continuing to pound on the door...

Turn 7 - Activation: P-4, Z-3
Drawn by all the pounding and shouting, 4 more zeds appear, two from across the street and 2 in Grammy's back yard.  Sweet Pea and Monkey Boy are frozen, waiting for Grammy to come to the door, calling for her and knocking on the door.  The zeds are working into a frenzy from all the commotion and two charge Monkey Boy, intent on their first feast.  In desperation, our 13 year old hero fires his .22 pistol and makes a perfect head shot on the closest zombie.  He takes a quick second shot but the kick from the first shot throws off his aim.  "I'll need to get used to that...", he mutters to himself.  The second zed charges into Monkey Boy who makes a wild one handed swing with his hockey stick.  With a combination of luck, adrenaline and some skill gained playing travel hockey he manages to hook the zombie's neck and throw it to the ground, nearly tearing it's head off.  His muttering turns to a shout of rage and triumph as he realizes he's downed his first two zeds.  What he doesn't know is that the gunfire is attracting more of the creatures as another zombie stands up from some bushes that were concealing it and begins to move towards the fight...

Red glass blobs mark kills - I had to recycle zeds since I only have 12 that are painted

Turn 8 - Activation: P-4, Z-6
Sweet Pea continues to hammer on the door.  "Come on, old lady!  Come on!"  She never really did get along with her mother-in-law much and this wasn't helping their relationship one bit...  Meanwhile, Monkey Boy waves his pistol and stick and with quiet confidence says to the pack of zeds closing in on them, "Come on...bring it!"  Surprisingly the zeds seem confused by the little man and hesitate...

Turn 9 - Activation: P-6, Z-1
Now the zeds are getting really worked up.  More appear from around the neighborhood and begin closing with our heroes who are STILL waiting for Grammy to come and open the door.  Sweet Pea is out of her mind with impatience and begins shouting words that are better left unpublished...  Monkey Boy raises his pistol and takes aim at the nearest zed but hesitates...

Turn 10 - Activation: P-1, Z-2
Smelling blood and eager for their first feast 5 of the zeds charge!  Monkey Boy drops one with a well aimed head shot just as it reaches him but his second shot goes into the dirt as the next zed hits his arm.  Monkey Boy fights with the desperation of a cornered badger!  Swinging his hockey stick and lashing out with his pistol in a berserker rage he kills two zombies and ties up a third without taking a single wound.  Sweet Pea is crushed against the door of the house, her back to the melee with a single zed trying to bite the back of her neck.  Issuing a steady stream of curses and inarticulate screams, she just manages to twist and grab hold of it's face before it's teeth can sink in.  The gunfire and sounds of battle bring another zed to the scene.  Both heroes are locked in melee just as Grammy opens the door...

Turn 11 - Activation: P5, Z2
More zeds start arriving, drawn by what will surely be a tremendous feast.  Sweet Pea and Monkey Boy are in a fight for their lives on Grammy's front porch, while Grammy stands just inside the door, too stunned to do anything.  Three more zeds charge into the melee and again Monkey Boy manages to shoot and kill one as they close.  With the calm precision of a trained assassin Monkey Boy takes down the two remaining zeds attacking him...  Sweet Pea, stumbling backwards against the opening door, twists hard and breaks the neck of the zed she's battling with, but a second steps up and grapples with her as Grammy stands and watches...  There is no time for words and no energy for screaming as the fighting is hot and frenetic...

Turn 12 - Activation: P-3, Z-3 (reroll 6-1, I ruled no zeds for reroll...)
Suddenly from around the corner of the house, perhaps being driven on by the zombies in the back yard, a horde of 4 terrified civilians run across the front of the house, plowing into the melee.  Monkey Boy is knocked down from behind and lays unconscious on the porch...  Sweet Pea stumbles backwards into the house and avoids the mob.  Seeing Monkey Boy go down, she cries out in anger and fear and with the rage of a she-bear decapitates the final zed she'd been fighting...  The terrified civilians surge past the front door and plow into another zed coming around the corner of the house...  With Monkey Boy out of the fight and more zeds closing, Sweet Pea knows they must act now or die here...

Turn 13 - Activation: P-2, Z-1
Grammy's grandma instincts finally burst into action and she charges through the door to help Monkey Boy.  Sweet Pea is a bit faster though and reaches the boy first, lifting him quickly and racing away from the house.  In her haste she doesn't notice the pistol and hockey stick lying among the slain zeds and these are left behind...  Both women run as fast as they can towards the car but one being burdened carrying a teenage body and the other being well over 75 neither manages to run very far.  Meanwhile the mob of civilians knock the zombie down that they barreled into at the corner of the house and then they run off into the neighbor's backyard...  The rest of the zeds on the board, moaning loudly, nearly howling with blood-lust move towards the two fleeing women...

Turn 14 - Activation: P-1, Z-2
The zeds charge, frenzied now, sensing their prey is about to escape them.  Both women are attacked in the rear.  Sweet Pea, even cradling her boy, manages to make a back handed sweep with her machete, felling yet another zed.  Unfortunately a second zed grapples with her...  Grammy manages to avoid being bitten but is too terrified and weak to finish the monster off...  Both women are in desperation mode now, locked in melee with the living dead.  The car is just down the street.  Most of the zeds are towards the house, away from the car.  If they can just get away from these two zombies they just might make it...

Turn 15 - Activation: P-5, Z-4
Grammy and Sweet Pea are determined to defend Monkey Boy to the last.  The zeds close in, 1 charging Grammy.  She manages to hold off one of them but the other proves too much and Grammy goes out of the fight.  One zed closes on Monkey Boy, anticipating some young flesh to feast on, but doesn't quite reach him this turn.

Sweet Pea needs to overcome one zed in melee and then make a break for it...she gets four dice to it's one...she feels badly that Grammy will be left behind to be a feast...she knows she must save her son...she feels confident...she rolls the dice and...

Blue player dice, Green zed die

 ...GOES OOF!!!  AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!  We almost made it...

The four remaining zeds enjoy a 3 player feast...

Aftermath:
Well, it was epic...at least I can say that.  I can't imagine Monkey Boy playing any better than he did.  It was just incredible the way the dice worked for him.  Sweet Pea on the other hand just never seemed to be able to come through, especially in the end when she really needed to.  Oh well...  Our main problem was that we just couldn't activate when we REALLY needed to.  That, and terrified civilians popping up at the most inopportune moments!  Still, it was a tremendous battle and I love the way the story unfolds with Two Hour Wargames.  I think these rules really are a great wargame/rpg combo!

I don't know just how I'll proceed with the campaign.  I may start over and instead of splitting up keep the family together for each mission.  Or maybe PDoid will continue on his own or maybe he'll coming looking for his family...or...who knows?

Until next time...peace.

Day One

I sat down a couple weeks ago and made notes for my Day One Campaign.  I just went through the questions in the book and answered as honestly as I could.  I don't want to spoil anything for anyone so if you've not played Day One or answered the questions yet, be warned.  I've tried to write this a bit like a journal entry looking back on days past.  The parts in italics are game notes...

The day was Thursday, August 26, 2010.  My family and I were preparing for a long weekend trip when the news began telling stories of strange attacks and crazy behavior in the streets.  I was in the rec room gathering some things and watching the news.  My wife, 'Sweet Pea' (Rep 3 Civilian), and son, 'Monkey Boy' (Age 13 - Rep 3 Civilian), were down stairs packing some things for the trip.  I'm 44, and had always thought it was just a matter of time until something like this would happen.  It looked as if today was the day.  I remember saying a quick prayer of thanks that we were all home together on one of the last days of summer break.  Unfortunately, my mom (Grammy - Rep 2 Civilian) was at her house - not too far away, but far enough.  My best friend, 'Doc', (Rep 3 - Civilian) was at his home on the other side of town.  My first thoughts were about how I could bring these two people to my home.  We needed to come up with a plan...

Once we realized what was happening we sat down and quickly made an inventory of our household.  We are normal people, at least as normal as anyone seems to be until you get to know them.  I am a clergyman, which may seem odd to some, but I really am a regular guy in every other way.  In fact, I would say I'm atypical of most clergy that I know.  Mine tends to be a sedentary job and many of my colleagues are pudgy and out of shape.  I on the other hand am in excellent physical condition.  In fact, on this particular day my family and I were making preparations to travel to Louisville, Kentucky where I would be participating in an Ironman distance triathlon (See previous post). I have no military or police experience but being so fit will no doubt be of some benefit in the coming crisis (My character will be a Rep 4 Civilian).  What's more, I own and am proficient with a number of firearms...

Fortunately for my family I've collected guns over the years and enjoy target shooting.  I inherited several firearms from my father when he died as well.  We were all surprised to discover that we have quite an arsenal in the house:  a .30-06 hunting rifle, 2 .22 caliber rifles, a 16 gauge shotgun, a 12 gauge shotgun, a .45ACP automatic pistol, a .357 magnum revolver, a .38 revolver, a .22 revolver and a .45 Colt black powder revolver.  Unfortunately our ammo is very limited and we'll need to get to a gun store soon to stock up.  (I decided that if anyone goes out of ammo before we get to the gun store then that particular gun is totally out and cannot be used until we find more ammo...)  We gathered up a collection of melee weapons including a battle ready sword, a machete, several axes, bats, hockey sticks, hammers, etc. and finally the chainsaw from the shed.  We laid everything out on the kitchen table and each of us chose weapons that seemed to fit. (Pdoid: shotgun and bat; Sweet Pea: 2xBA pistols and machete; Monkey Boy: pistol and hockey stick)

We live in the suburbs on the edge of a rural area.  Our house is located on 1.5 acres and is surrounded by heavy woods.  We have food and water to last 3 people about 2 weeks (1 food unit per family member).  My garage has some plywood, a few old doors from a remodeling project and lots of lumber scraps that could be used for barricades if needed.  I also have an extensive wood shop complete with many power tools for fabricating wooden items.

My vehicles include a Ford F-150 crew cab pickup and a small 4 door Ford Focus sedan.  We also have a 27 foot travel trailer.  Again, providence was with us as the gas tanks of both vehicles were full in preparation for our trip.

None of us are smokers so there are no cigarettes in the house.  We do however have a well stocked beer fridge in the garage.  We have LOTS of paper towels and toilet paper (my wife stocks up often at a local big box store...).  There's also a little cash and some minor jewelry in the house. (These items may come in handy for bartering as the campaign unfolds...)

Having taken an inventory and armed ourselves, we came up with The Plan.  I knew we needed to get to my mom and to Doc quickly and bring them to the house.  I also wanted to get some supplies to make the house more secure.  Sweet Pea thought we should get some more food just in case and maybe some cash since we don't know how this is all going to turn out.  Doc lived in the city, which just wouldn't be good and Grammy could never fend for herself.  Our house was the best place to hole up and wait out the crisis.  The house is defensible and we are fairly well provisioned.  We needed to act quickly though, get the few provisions we needed and secure our friends and family.  We decided to split up to get more done in less time.

Sweet Pea and Monkey Boy would go to Grammy's (see next post...).  Once they had her they'd stop at the grocery store to stock up on more food and then swing by the bank or an ATM to get more cash.  Meanwhile, I'd take the pickup and head to Doc's.  He and I would then go to the local Big Box Home Improvement store to get some heavier plywood and 2x4s to barricade the house.  We'd also get a generator if we could find one.  We'd then stop by a gas station to fill any gas cans we could find.  We'd all meet at home as quickly as we could, barricade the house, and then decide who would go to the gun store to stock up on ammo.  Once we had that we could relax, pop a brew and wait to see what happened next.

That was it.  We were ready to face the world on Day One.  It seemed like a good plan so we grabbed our weapons, locked up the house, jumped in our vehicles and headed out...

“No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair.”  ~ GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON, JR.

Being Fit Counts

This really has very little to do with ATZ but maybe it helps to explain why I've not posted much since I started this blog...

This past Sunday, August 29, 2010, I completed my first Ironman (tm) distance triathlon.  For those of you who don't know, an Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run done one right after the other.  A participant has a max of 17 hours to finish.  My time was 13:40:39.  It was a long, hot day but well worth the time and effort I put into it.  After a solid year of preparation, to complete something like this carries an indescribable reward...

Of course, many of you will recall that the first rule of the Zed Apocalypse is 'Cardio' - at least according to the 'Zombieland' movie.  I think I have that covered!  Also, I think this qualifies me to begin my 'Day One' campaign as a Rep 4 Civilian!  I respect and admire those of you who started as Rep 3 but I'm going to cash in on all the hard work I've put into training! : )

I've been making terrain and painting heroes for my campaign.  I've also gone through the 'Day One' questions and have selected my first several locations.  I should be posting some batreps soon.  Now that my training schedule has slacked off, I'll have much more time for my more sedentary hobbies.

Hope you're all well!  Thanks for checking in.  Peace.