Siding the Garage

Been working on my house and got the garage sided.  I think it is turning out pretty good.

Of course I still need to finish the door details and paint everything and then roof it but this shows some progress.

It is a pretty simple process to add siding.  I'm using cardstock cut into 1/4 inch strips and overlapped by 1/8 inch.  I made 1/8 inch marks on both ends of the foamboard walls and then glued each strip into place starting at the bottom and working up.  I marked and cut the strips to fit around doors and windows.  It didn't take too long - maybe a couple hours total work time to finish the garage.  The corners are covered by a vertical strip that is cut to length and then scored and folded to fit over the ends of the siding.  This gives a more finished look.  If you look at the vinyl siding on a real house you will see something similar.

I was thinking cutting the strips would be a laborious process until I realized our document shredder at work cuts perfect 1/4 inch strips.  It only takes about 30 seconds to get a pile like this.  Quick and simple!  My coworkers thought I was nuts when they saw me picking up strips from the floor of the workroom but you learn to live with some ridicule when you are a modeler/wargamer. : )

I still have to put siding on the house and then detail the doors and windows.  Then I will paint everything and add some other details (like lights, meters, air conditioner unit, etc.).  The roof shouldn't take too long.  Putting shingles on will be tedious but I will use a similar strip process that will hopefully make that go a bit faster.

It's a good project and I'm looking forward to seeing it a game.  I need to post some pics of my real house so you can do some comparisons...

The Shed Out Back

Just a quick one today.  Last night I finished building our shed as part of my project to build my real life home in 28mm.  I actually have two smaller sheds out back but decided to only build one larger one for the model.  I think it turned out pretty good!

The model is built from foamcore board.  In fact, you can see it hovering in the background of the pictures from my last post...  The roof is corrugated cardboard from some packing material I got in the mail.  The ridge cap is card stock.  I covered the foamcore walls with wood strips made from Popsicle sticks and other strips of wood.  The doors are made from card strips glued to look like wood planking.

I will paint it to match our sheds at home but I think it looks pretty good just like this!  Fun and simple to build!

Building My House

I started building a model of my RL house to use as a base for my campaign.  I'm starting out by building the basic structure from foamcore board.  After a lot of internal debate I decided to not try to do the interior.  I figured it would take way too long and keep me from continuing my campaign.  As the good people at THW say, 'just play the game!'  I'll use the I, Zombie building rules for any fighting that takes place indoors.

The basic structure is a story and a half house with a sunroom addition in back and an attached garage on the side.  There is also a roofed front porch but all you can see here is the 'slab' for the porch.

I'm experimenting a bit with this project. I decided that I would just draw the doors and windows on and use card or styrene to build up the siding around them.  Since there is no interior I don't need to see through the windows and it saves a lot of fiddly cutting of holes in the foamcore.  I'll paint on the window and door details.

I will probably mount the whole thing on a base that will include the driveway, flowerbeds and back deck.  You can't really see the garage door drawn on the black foamcore but I think you get the idea.

Here's a shot with the family posing in front...

...and around back.  The sunroom has sliding glass doors across the entire back wall - 3 sets of doors.  There are also sliding glass doors in each of the sunroom's sidewalls. All that open glass will make this a tough house to defend but I've got some ideas.  The back deck goes in the space between the garage and the sunroom.

The plan is to build the house as it exists in real life - or as close as possible - and then build pieces that can be added onto the model to show it boarded up, fortified and defended.  These pieces will be able to be removed so the house can be used for early or late apocalypse scenarios.

There are two dormer windows on the front slope of the roof. These will give great roof access and I'm thinking of building a catwalk around the roof as part of the defenses.  We'll see how that turns out!

It has been great to imagine my home in a zombie apocalypse and then to plan how I would fortify it.  A fun project so far and only just getting started!

Timeout for Learning

I decided to take a break from my campaign and play a one off game using my survivor and ganger minis.  I'm still getting familiar with how the Reaction System works.  All the games I've played to this point have not had humans fighting humans - at least not in large enough groups to make me work through the reactions.  This report will have more rules details than what I've been doing.  If you notice something that doesn't seem right please comment.  I may have misunderstood something in the rules.

I dug out some old scifi terrain I made years ago for 40K.  You might recognize the trash and random bits I used to cobble it all together.  I think it makes for a passable industrial area for ATZ.  I'm counting this as a suburban area for this scenario and only the large square warehouse building can be entered.  All the rest of the buildings are storage tanks or machinery.

For those that are interested, the vehicles are all Fast Lane 1/43 scale diecast.  The roads are homemade from sheet foam I got at Hobby Lobby and painted.  The hedges/fences are scratch built from dowel bits and kitchen pot scrubbers.  The trees/woods are Woodland Scenics mounted on foamboard or card shapes to designate the edge of the wooded area.  The stacks of barrels and crates are a combination of scratch built, some Games Workshop terrain kit stuff and some 1/35 scale military models.  All of this terrain is stuff I've been building and collecting for years.  Some of these pieces are literally 15 or more years old!  Scary...

The survivors started at the edge of the board near their pickup.  The characters are defined as follows:
   Doid (Star), Rep. 5; Shotgun, bat; athlete, fencer
   Mom, Rep. 4; 2xBA pistols; slow
   Doc, Rep. 4; shotgun, axe, pistol
   Monkeyboy, Rep. 3; pistol, hockey stick; athlete
   Pinkie, Rep. 3; bat and shield (protected); brawler

The gangers started at the opposite side of the board.  At the beginning of the scenario they are investigating the utility truck.  In the picture below the characters are as follows, from left to right:
   Franklin, Rep. 3; 2xBA pistols, knife
   Teesha, Rep. 3; pistol, knife
   Tyrese, Rep. 5 (Star); 2xBA pistols, knife
   Randall, Rep. 4; shotgun, knife

I only counted the survivors for initial zombie placement rolls since I didn't want so many starting zeds that my groups never got into a fight with each other.  I rolled 10 zeds.   I then deployed the zombies using the center of the board as the deviation point and they ended up scattered nicely between the two groups.

Turn 1 - Activation Roll:  Survivors - 4, Gangers - 5, Zeds - 6
The zombies do nothing.
Gangers:  Tyrese checks the truck for keys and finds nothing. The rest of the gang take up defensive positions, some drawing their knives anticipating melee with the nearby zeds.  Teesha wanders over to one of the crates and searches it finding nothing.  (I drew one card from the ATZ deck and got 'none' for loot.  Apparently this stack of stuff had long since been looted...)

Survivors:  Decide to investigate the warehouse.  One zed is close enough to charge so Doid and Doc attack and take it out easily.  Doid is allowed to choose to charge since he is a star.  Doc passes 1d6 on the 'Wanting to Charge' test but since Doid is the group leader and passed 1d6 for the LDR Die, Doc gets to add 1d6 and counts as passing 2d6.  The melee is short and brutal. Doid rolls 6d6 (5 for Rep plus 1 for having higher impact weapon) the zed rolls 1 as usual.  The zed scores 0 successes and Doid scores 4 - total obliteration for the zed!  The rest of the group closes in behind Doid and Doc, facing around to cover all approaches.

Turn 2 - Activation:  S-4, G-1, Z-2
Survivors activate first and move towards the warehouse, continuing to cover all approaches.
The zombies all move towards the humans, either Ganger or Survivor.  A few zombies move into sight.  Doc passes 0d6 on the In Sight test and does nothing.  Monkeyboy passes 2d6 and holds his fire (sound discipline is critical!).  Mom passes 1d6 and snap fires, killing one zed.  Pinkie also passes 1d6 but has no ranged weapon so does nothing.  One zed is within charge range of Doid.  I choose to have Doid pass 1d6 which allows him to melee normally but not fire.  (I don't want to make noise that will attract more zeds...)  In the first round of melee, Doid rolls 4 successes and the zed 1.  In the second round neither score any successes so Doid is trapped in melee with the zed.

The Gangers hear Mom's shot and are alerted to the presence of other humans  They all pass 2d6 on the Wanting to Charge test and plow into the approaching zeds, killing them easily.  This brings them into sight of Doc and Monkeyboy who both pass 1d6 on the In Sight test - they see them but halt in place and do nothing.  Considering that they have no weapons with enough range it wouldn't have mattered if they'd been able to fire anyway...
No new zeds are generated from the shot.

Doc and Monkeyboy's view of the Gangers

Ganger's view of the Survivors

Turn 3 - Activation: S-6, G-4, Z-3

The Survivors all hesitate (not able to activate).  Since Doid is trapped in melee maybe they are waiting for orders...

 

Gangers:  Tyrese and Randall advance to cover, watching the Survivors.  Franklin and Teesha charge the next closest zombie.  Both pass 1d6 but are able to add Tyrese's LDR die (which he passed) so count as passing 2d6.  Teesha easily kills the zed (reminded me of Michonne from the Walking Dead comic...)
Zombies:  All move towards the humans, some charging the Survivors.  Pinkie passes 0d6 on the Being Charged test but adds Doid's LDR so is able to melee normally.  Monkeyboy passes 1d6 and adds the LDR die so he shoots and then melees normally.  His shot kills the zed closing on him.  Doid melees and after 3 more rounds is STILL locked in combat.  This is one tough zed!  Pinkie manages to take out the zed that charged her. No new zeds are generated by the shooting.

Aerial view at the end of turn 3

Turn 4 - Activation: S-2, G-6, Z-3
The Gangers hesitate, uncertain of whether to confront the Survivors in a direct assault or move to flank them.  They are not able to activate...
Zombies: One zed charges Franklin who passes 2d6 on the Being Charged test.  He fires one shot and kills the zed.

The zombies on the other side of the table also charge the humans.  Doid finally manages to put down the tough zed he's been wrestling with for 3 turns.  Monkeyboy also puts down a zed in melee, cracking it's skull with his hockey stick.
Survivors: the group all moves into cover behind the tanks and crates to their right, hoping to catch the Gangers in the open.  Everyone is able to Fast Move, even Mom, who is slow, and get into cover.

The Survivors at the end of turn 4.  Note how they face in all directions so they are not surprised by any zombies...

Turn 5 - Activation:  S-1(5), G-2, Z-1(4)
Gangers get to activate first because Survivors and Zombies tied their first rolls with 1 each.  The Survivors will activate second, then the zombies.  (I'm not sure I did this correctly...)
Gangers:  "Let's get 'em!" Tyrese shouts.  All Gangers Fast Move to the tank or emergency vehicle, taking caution to not cause an In Sight test from any of the Survivors.  Pinkie could have taken one on Randall but since she has no ranged weapons it is a moot point.

Survivors: All shift to their right, staying in cover, trying to flank Randall and get a shot at him.  Doid leads the way...

...triggering an In Sight test from Randall who passes 1d6 and snap fires with his shotgun.  Randall designates 2 shots at Doid and one at Doc, who is also in sight.  Randall rolls 6 dice for the shotgun, counting the 3 highest scores and hits Doid twice but misses Doc.  Randall rolls a 1 and a 2 for damage on Doid from the two hits and blows Doid away!  Or at least he would have if Doid had not been a Star.  Doid uses 'Star Power' to avoid being killed by a lower rep character and is OOF instead.

The rest of the Survivors must take the Leader Lost test and all pass 0d6.  All Retire, falling back to the woods near the pickup where they Hunker Down...

1 zed is generated from the shotgun blast...

At this point I ended the scenario since there is no leader to rally the Survivors.  I figure as soon as the Gangers move close enough to shoot at the Survivors again they will flee the table.  So, the Gangers loot the table, steal the Survivors pickup and kidnap Doid.  Yikes!  I'm glad this is a one off and not part of a campaign!

Not a very good showing for my Survivors!  They did fine fending off the zeds, but in combat with people that shoot back they ran like scared rabbits.  Still, this has generated some new scenario ideas.  A little payback may be in order!  Or maybe a Rescue Mission...

Let me know what you think.  If you notice any errors in how I followed the rules, please point them out.  The reaction tests with zombies are easy enough but I find I get a little confused when you have two or more groups capable of shooting at one another.

I'd also be interested in hearing some tactical advice from some of you that are more familiar with THW's Reaction System.  How does one take the initiative in combat, maneuvering into position to get a shot without getting blown away before you get a chance to shoot?  Or is it best to wait for the enemy to show their head first?  Seems like the game could get really static (ie - 'boooorrrring', as my 13 year old would say) if two sides refused to take the fight to the enemy and just waited for someone else to 'go first'.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pics...

Day One: Location 2 - Stuffmart

I'm finally getting around to posting another AAR on my Day One Campaign.  Just to recap: there are 3 characters in my group:
     PDoid - Rep 4 Civilian; shotgun, cricket bat; fencer and athlete attributes
     Doc - Rep 3 Civilian; shotgun, axe; no attributes
     Monkeyboy - Rep 3 Civilian; pistol, hockey stick; athlete attribute
The group is in a vehicle with PDoid driving.
In the last AAR we lost Sweetpea (PDoid's wife and MB's mom...) but collected Doc from his house.  The next stop for the day was a local Big Box Hardware store (Lowe's in RL, Stuffmart is my made up generic name) to get supplies for barricading the house before heading home.  I rolled for getting to the location and encountered no problems (passed 2d6)...  The rest of the report will be told in a narrative style, this time from the point of view of Monkeyboy.

After the cop got out of the car we drove in silence to Lowe's. My gut was aching and my mind was numb. I couldn't believe this was all for real.  I'd played a lot of video games in my life but this was nothing like it. No replays...no redoes...and people who died stayed dead...mostly...

The streets on the way were eerily quiet, like everyone had just vanished.  We pulled into the Lowe's parking lot and except for some cars and an ambulance by the entrance there was no one around.  I thought I saw some movement in front of the store but I couldn't see well from the back seat.

As Dad rolled slowly up the drive I saw a couple of those things emerge from the woods to our right. 'They're here too,' I said in warning to Dad and Doc.  'We're safe as long as we stay in the car,' Doc said.  Dad just glanced at Doc and I knew he was thinking that to get what we needed we had to get out of the car. I double checked my pistol to be sure there was a round in the chamber...

As we reached the first row of parking spaces Dad said, 'Oh, crap...' to which Doc added, 'just be cool...we haven't done anything wrong...as far as he knows.'  I followed their gaze to our left and saw a police Hummer pulling into the other drive. 'You shot a cop in front of your house,' I thought to myself, remembering Doc's last encounter with the Police. My stomach did another a flip-flop...

'There's a couple more in the driveway,' Dad said, looking in the review mirror.  I glanced over my shoulder and saw them staggering after us.  I had never seen them when we drove passed that spot just a moment ago.  Where do they come from?!

As Dad eased his way through the parking lot, we began to see more and more of the things. They must have been in the parked cars because it was like they appeared from no where.  I noticed them converging on our car and on the police Hummer.  The cop was easing into the lot as well, heading to the door - same place we were headed for.  'This could be real trouble,' I thought.

The movement I'd seen by the front door must have been a couple of 'them'.  One was in a lab coat.  Maybe a doc from the hospital? It made sense with the ambulance sitting on the curb...  All the zombie games and books I'd ever played or read always said it was medical staff who were infected first.  'I guess they were right,' I thought, 'fiction does become reality.'

As we approached the door, the parking lot was getting fairly crowded with dead shuffling around. 'What'ya think?' Doc asked. 'I'm not sure,' Dad said, 'maybe we should just keep driving.'  The cop was still heading towards the door with several of those things trailing his vehicle...and closing.

If we got out of the car we knew there'd be a firefight to fend off the dead.  Who knows how the cop would react to three people jumping out of a car with guns blazing.  Most likely we'd end up in a shootout and none of us needed that. 'Let's just go home,' I said.

As we rolled by the front of the store we could see shapes shambling around inside. The dead were in the store. 'Yeah, maybe we should just keep going,' Dad said.

Suddenly there was a God-Almighty 'THUMP!' and Dad and Doc both cursed in unison. The car veered left and I felt the bounce as we drove over something sizable. I remembered that sound and feeling from when Dad had once accidentally hit a dog while taking me to hockey practice, except this was bigger...much bigger...

The dead were on top of us! Surging from behind the ambulance and piling out of the store they threw themselves at our car in a vain effort to get at us. Their howls and moans were terrifying! I saw a quick flash of a twisted face at my window and then a smear of blood on the glass as the creature went under the wheels.  I put my hands over my ears and shut my eyes as the car began to bump and shake with each impact...

'Just go! Get the f*** out of here!' Doc shouted. The only reply Dad gave was to accelerate...

I could feel the car fishtail as the rear wheels spun as if on ice. I didn't want to think about what was making us lose traction but it didn't take much imagination to know what was happening...

'What is that moron doing?!' Dad shouted and I opened my eyes to see the cop pulling right in front of us.  He too was swarmed with the living dead.  I could see bloody smears along the side of his Hummer and I even caught a flash of his face grimacing as he fought the wheel, trying to control his vehicle.

The dead were all around us now, coming from all directions.  Even the ones we'd passed earlier were starting to close on us from behind. Dad tried to keep the car moving on the slick pavement but it felt like we were only inching forward...

Doc kept up a steady litany of 'F***! F***! F***!' but Dad was too busy trying to control the car and not smash into the cop to say anything.  I just braced my hands on the back of the seat in front of me, held on and prayed...

I felt the car grab pavement and shoot forward. A couple of dead faces flashed by as we bumped and veered our way through the crowd. We slipped by the front of the Hummer, missing it by inches. There was a horrible screeching, grinding sound and as I looked over my shoulder I saw the Hummer roll over onto it's right side, smashing zombies as it went.  It collided with the corner of the building in a spray of brickwork, broken glass, automotive fluid and blood.

I could see the cop hanging from his seat belt in the driver's seat. He wasn't moving and his head was covered in blood. I'm pretty sure he was dead but even if he wasn't there was no time for us to stop to help.

Dad kept the hammer down as one more of those things came at us from the left. He didn't react at all when he hit it...not even a flinch...it was like it was no different than a bug splattering the windshield while driving the highway.

We didn't get what we came for but at least we got out alive. As we've talked and thought about it we've decided that noise must attract these things.  The sound of the car and the Hummer drew them like moths to the flame. When we go out again we'll need to be especially quiet. I hate the thought of going on foot but we're going to have to go out eventually.  We've only got enough food for a couple weeks...

The city is in chaos.  The TV keeps showing images of horror. It really is the End of the World.  We did the best we could to board up the house and cover the windows to keep light from showing. Dad filled the bathtubs with water and he's sitting at the table cleaning his guns. Doc is glued to the TV.

As I sit and write this I still can't get over how those things threw themselves at our vehicle. How do you fight something that isn't afraid to die? They seem to have one thought only: to kill the living at any cost. And every kill adds to their numbers...

We're in this for the long haul. After only one day it is obvious that nothing will ever again be the same. This is really going to mess up my high school years! There is an upside though: no homework!