Zomtober 2023, Week 5

<== Go here for Week 4

Introduction

It's the last week of Zomtober, at least for 2023.  As is required by the rules of that competition, I've completed another model - or rather two models.  My self-imposed extra goal is to finish figures for both a zombie and a survivor, then present the pair as a "duel".  The idea is that readers can then speculate on the likely outcome 😁.

Logan vs Old Man Zombie (OMZ)

This week sees Logan facing off against "Old Man" zombie (OMZ for short).  Logan is a fairly average-looking man, wearing an (army surplus?) sweater and a woolen hat.  He's wielding a very big tyre iron, so maybe he's a driver for some large vehicle (truck?  tractor?  excavator?).  Or perhaps it's a piece of plumbing instead - a bent pipe with a connector on the end of it?  Either way, it looks solid and heavy - as long as Logan keeps his grip then it ought to do some real damage when wielded.

The model of Logan comes from Offensive Miniatures "modern rioters" range; the traffic cone on his base is from the same pack.

OMZ is a straight build of a Studio Miniatures plastic zombie.  As such, he's not especially animated; swaying or shambling rather than anything else.  In fact, he's the epitome of the "crowd filler", back-rank zombie - there's nothing much to distinguish him from the rest of the horde.

I'm going to be blunt: I think that this week's models are some of the most generic, bland figures I've painted in a while.  Neither of them is especially exciting, though I have tried to add a bit of interest by placing the traffic cone on Logan's base and by painting a slightly more complex jacket on OMZ.  Still, neither model is especially memorable.

Conclusion

The eternal question is this: what happens next?

In my opinion, Logan is healthy, alert and armed, while OMZ doesn't look especially threatening.  I'd say that Logan is probably about to pulp the zombie's skull and carry on with the rest of his day as if the encounter had never happened?

On the other hand, what about that traffic cone?  Was Logan carrying it - and forced to drop it in order to defend himself?  If so then for what purpose?  Either way, Logan had better be careful not to step backwards as he makes his swing.  Tripping over such an obstacle would put him at a considerable disadvantage and could give OMZ the opening needed for the zombie to bite the man.

Zomtober 2023, Week 4

<== Week 3 is this way

Introduction

Right, so Zomtober 2023 is in progress and my self-appointed goal for this event is to finish off one survivor and one zombie model each week, presenting them as a 'duel' on the Sunday.  This week it's going to be a day early because I'll be busy all day on Sunday - so here's a Saturday duel instead!

Alicia vs. "Shirley Temple" Zombie (STZ)

h

My pairing this week sees "Alicia" facing off against "Shirley Temple" zombie?  I've given the zombie this name because of her flowing golden locks and short stature - she has a (slight!) resemblance to the famous child actress.  STZ has lost one hand and at least part of her clothing, though her tartan miniskirt seems to have survived.  She's also carrying some shopping bags; I imagine that these are an indicator of the last thing she was doing before becoming infected.

Alicia looks like a fit, healthy woman, perhaps in her 30s or 40s.  She's dressed in decent, comfortable clothes and seems completely at ease with the situation - or perhaps she is day-dreaming and hasn't noticed the zombie approaching?  Alicia also has a pistol, though she hasn't raised it yet.

This picture from behind shows just how ragged is STZ's top.  It (and the missing right hand) suggest a significant trauma in her recent past.  Is that - and her waif-like frame - a significant disadvantage if it comes to a physical struggle?

Both models are straight builds from old, Wargames Factory sets - the Female Survivors and Zombie Vixens (sic!) kits.  Although that company is long gone, I believe Warlord Games own the moulds now and still produce the sprues.

Conclusion

What happens next?   Is Alicia just sizing up the situation, ready to shoot or run as appropriate?  Or has she been caught unawares, in the middle of an unrelated train of thought?  Will the lack of a right hand (and the use of her left hand to hold shopping bags) hinder STZ's attack?  Indeed, will STZ even attack Alicia - the zombie seems to be heading in slightly the wrong direction?  If Alicia freezes on the spot, will STZ fail to notice her and just carry on down the street?

As always, I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts on the matter!

Follow this for week 5 ==>

Zomtober 2023, Week 3

<== Go back to last week's duel

Introduction

Another week, another duel!  At least, that's how I'm marking Zomtober - by finishing some survivor and zombie models.  It's customary for me to present a pair of such models and ask my readers: what happens next?  Here you go...

Marion vs Emaciated Female Zombie (EFZ)

This week's survivor is called Marion.  She's a sporty-looking woman with a modern compound bow, but it seems that she has very little other equipment: only a single arrow and no knife or other reserve weapon.  She is also lacking a bracer or even thick clothes to protect her arm, so I imagine she'll end up with a bad burn from the bowstring when she does release the arrow.

It seems slightly unfair to call this zombie "emaciated", but I chose that title on account of her upraised arm.  At the very least, this looks quite thin, even to the point of being withered.  Does EFZ have any strength in that hand, or is it too weak to be useful?  The rest of her appears to be fairly sturdy, if now somewhat damaged.

Like Marion, EFZ appears to be dressed for some athletic activity, or partly so.  Maybe she was changing before or after exercise when she was turned into a zombie?

So, what's the scene?  Were these two both at the same sports club when the plague struck?  Or are they total strangers; just a chance encounter in the street?

Both Marion and EMZ are straight builds of old Wargames Factory models - respectively from the Female Survivors and Zombie Vixens kits.  I'm quite pleased with how they both look.  They're nothing very complex; just nice, simple figures.

The only minor quibble I'd have is that the female zombies kit from Wargames Factory had far too many very thin arms.  This is especially irritating when the bodies from that kit are reasonably well-proportioned (for healthy, good-looking young women, at least.  Not much diversity of body shapes here!)

Conclusion

What happens next?

On the one hand:

• Marion has a weapon which is probably very effective
• She seems to be able to wield it
• She hasn't been taken by surprise.

On the other hand:

• It looks as if she's aiming high (perhaps going for a riskier head shot?)
• I do wonder if she really knows how to use the bow properly (lack of a bracer, spare arrows and not drawing quite to the chin - as is modern practice in Western archery).

If Marion hits her target then it should finish the zombie off, no question.  But if she misses then does EFZ have enough strength in her outstretched arm to grapple with the survivor?  Or is this relevant - does the zombie need anything other than teeth?

Forward to Week 4! ==>

Zomtober 2023, Week 2

<== Go here for the previous Zomtober article

Introduction

It's been a while since I last did a Zomtober post - I missed the whole of 2022 as well as the first week of 2023.  But here we are again!

As before, I'm presenting the initial stage of a duel or encounter between a zombie and a survivor.  The important question is "what happens next"?  There's no "right" answer, just use your imagination (but try to stay within the bounds of possibility 😀).

Harvey vs Dead Average Zombie

This week's survivor is called "Harvey".  He's well-armed, with twin automatic pistols - though he appears to be waving these in the air as if trying to scare off the zombie rather than destroying it.  Maybe Harvey has been taken by surprise - he is twisting his body in a manner that might suggest being off balance?

I've designated this week's zombie as "Dead Average Zombie" ("DAZ" for short).  DAZ is really quite unremarkable.  He's not particularly animated or rotten, though he does seem to have lost most of his shirt somehow.

Harvey is a straight build from the old Wargames Factory "Apocalypse Survivors" kit.  I'm not completely happy with my choice of parts for him, though.  In particular, the baseball cap doesn't really go with the shirt-and-tie body.  Hmm, maybe I should have given him a cowboy hat?

DAZ is a simple build from the Studio Miniatures zombie sprue.  As such, he's not particularly animated, but would be good filler for a crowd scene.

Conclusion

So, what happens next?  Is Harvey merely readying his weapons to blow the zombie away?  Or is he firing into the air as an intimidation tactic (which probably wouldn't work)?  If the latter, will he realise his mistake in time to take another, more fruitful course of action?  After all, DAZ doesn't look particularly fast-moving or tricky to deal with.

Look ahead to next week's entry ==>

Away Team Red: Romulans

Introduction

Those who know me well will know that I have something of a fondness for Star Trek.  I've published a number of articles previously about my "not Trek" starships and the games of Full Thrust in which they have been used.  There are reasonably good sources of such models from a wide variety of sources.

Until recently, there has been a scarcity of figure models, suitable for use in games set on board a ship or as part of an away team on a planet's surface.  There have been some that would proxy for Federation crew, but very little for other races.

Well, not any more!  There's a range of 3D-printable designs called "Away Team Red" that I've only discovered in the last 6 months or so, even if they have been around for a bit longer than this.  Physical specimens are available from a number of suppliers on hosts such as etsy.com .

The Away Team Red collection is obviously designed by someone who loves and respects Star Trek, especially the original series.  If I've understood correctly, the sculptor goes by the handle of Lost Heresy Miniatures.

The range includes several alien races (including a "not Gorn" set - something of a holy grail for me!) as well as a considerable number of "not Federation" crew and a few monsters.  Excellent!

After that long preamble, here are some Romulans!

Aquilons

• Firstly, they're not "Romulans" - the designer calls them "Aquilons".  Well, well.
• There are two variants of the 10-model Aquilon set: one with helmets and one without.  I have the bare-headed figures.
• The 10 models in the set include an obvious leader, but many of the rest are equipped with long guns.  Ideally I would have preferred a more diverse group, with some figures using equipment (scanners, comms...) rather than brandishing weapons.  But you get what you get.
• I've converted several of the crew in small ways, though this was not easy.  They're printed in a very hard, very brittle resin and the only way to cut this was with a razor saw.  Of necessity, my conversions have been limited to swapping the occasional hand (plus what it's holding) or shortening the weapons to make them pistols rather than rifles.
• These models are slightly larger than 28mm - maybe 30mm?  They're close enough for me to mix and match with other manufacturers, especially for other races.

The Crew

I painted the first four figures with coloured sashes; I suppose I'm thinking of these as officers or specialists.

Tomeet is obviously the captain and I imagine that Rukan is his second-in-command (since he's got the same colour of sash, albeit a lesser form).  The other two could be science, engineering, comms, medical or any other specialties I desire.

The next pair are in the "rank and file" uniform, with standard black sashes.  However, they're carrying pistols.  Perhaps they are ensigns - does the Romulan empire have such things?

Am I alone in thinking that the 3rd model's face looks like Leonard Nimoy/Spock?

Finally, we have the goon squad, security, mooks or whatever else you wish to call them.  I'm thinking that these are the equivalent of the Federation's "red shirts" - un-named characters whose chance of surviving an episode is low.

...except that I did give them names.  Does that create a paradox and break the universe?

Finally, here is the entire bunch all together.  Romulans aren't inherently evil; they're just very secretive and have their own honour code.  That should be plenty to bring them into conflict with my other Trek-like forces!

Conclusion

These are excellent models!  They're on the chunky side, but that gives them a lot of strength and they should resist handling damage well.  The hard resin does make it difficult to convert them, but that's too bad.

These aren't the first "Away Team Red" models I have bought - and I don't think they'll be the last, either.

Japanese pirates: Scheltrum Miniatures' Wako

 Introduction

For some years now, I have been searching for more Sengoku-era Japanese bandits with which to populate my games of Test of Honour.  Some models are available from the usual suspects (such as Perry Miniatures, Warlord Games & Footsore Miniatures), but I want more variety.

Scheltrum are a long-established model manufacturer in Scotland.  They have a wide range of figures for some fairly unusual genres - but they really don't do the internet at all.  Eventually, I managed to track down this elusive company at last year's Carronade show in Falkirk, where they had a large stall.

I was curious about Scheltrum's Wako models - feudal Japanese pirates - and so I purchased one of the several available packs.  I thought that these would be suitable for use as generic bandits.  Read on to find out whether I was right!

First Impressions

There were 8 models in the pack I had bought.  Two of these were unique and three were pairs of duplicated figures.  Six of the eight had open hands for weapons, whilst one pair of figures were moulded with exceptionally large swords.  Other than the separate weapons, the models were just a single piece.

The supplied weapons were all spears with a variety of lengths.  Some of the longer poles had attachments just below the head; I'm guessing that these were "fire lances" - primitive gunpowder weapons.

A few of the figures had noticeable amounts of flash on them, but this was easy to remove (and quite soft metal as well).

Finished Figures

It took a while to paint all my Wako.  In the end, I replaced a fair number of the weapons with spare spears and swords from another manufacturer (AW Miniatures, if I remember correctly?).  This was because I didn't wish to have my bandits armed with fire lances, even though the supplied weapons were perfectly acceptable parts in all other respects..

The entire set.  What a bunch of ruffians!

Two figures with "half helmet" (not sure how else to describe this?).  The sword (from AW Miniatures) looks a little odd, perhaps - but I didn't want to make them both into spearmen.

The pair of swordsmen from the Wako pack.  I've converted the one on the right by removing the sword and replacing it with a spear.  In my mind, these both look a bit odd, as the remaining sword is huge and the overarm spear thrust is not something I associate with Japanese/samurai fighting styles.

Two bandits with spears, headbands and partial armour.  Good, serviceable figures.

The two unique models from the pack:
The left-hand figure - with the hat - would work fine with either a spear or (as shown) a naginata.
The right-hand figure is perhaps the most generic model in the set: there's nothing about him that makes me think of Sengoku-period Japan (maybe the hair style?).

Conclusion

There is a distinct lack of information about Scheltrum's products available!  Hopefully, this article goes some small way towards fixing that.  Note that their Wako range has several other packs as well; these have greater or lesser amounts of armour, I believe.  Indeed, one model even has a Spanish-style helmet, presumably looted from some unfortunate sailor!

The style of these models is definitely a generation or two behind the best available today.  I've already mentioned a bit of flash on the castings; as well as that the figures are anatomically a bit exaggerated (the heads & hands are big, for starters).  Add to that the soft metal and it all screams "old fashioned".

Having said that, I think they are perfectly acceptable crowd-fillers.  These models will help to bulk out the back ranks of my bandit warband and add some welcome variety to such motley crews.  I will most certainly use them in my games.

Addendum

Because there seems to be some interest in contacting Scheltrum, I have scanned the part of their catalogue that has contact details.  I cannot vouch for the accuracy of any of the forms of communication printed there; all I can say is that this comes from a paper catalogue which was handed to me in person at the Carronade show in late 2021.

Note: I do know that they have (at the time of writing) no website.  There is an old website name floating around for Scheltrum, but it seems to have been abandoned for a long time.

Santa versus the Hooligans

 Introduction

Many times over the life of this blog, I have run a Christmas-themed game of Hordes of the Things.  All of these can be found using this link: https://colgar6.blogspot.com/search/label/Santa .

The annual holiday game didn't happen last year (global pandemic, don't ya know!), but we're back in 2021 with a new battle.  This time, Santa's home is under threat from tribes of goblins and their associated wolves & trolls.  He has allied with a barbarian tribe (probably through promises of extreme feasting and loot, I imagine!) to defend against this threat.

The Forces

Each of the 4 bands was an independent 24AP army for Hordes of the Things.  The forces of destruction (two goblin armies) were controlled by my friend Steve, whilst the bringers of light and happiness were led by myself and my son.  I took the barbarians, whilst my son took Santa.  He (my son, not Santa!) had just received a vaccine booster shot the day before and hadn't slept well overnight.  This might go part way towards explaining some of the outcomes in the game!

Santa's Army

Santa's force is a mixture of elves, toy soldiers, fierce ice bears and hordes of snowmen.  It is described in more detail here: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2013/12/hott-santas-army.html .

The Barbarians

My barbarians have a lot of foot warband elements (as might be expected), some archers, some hard-charging panther-mounted knights and a general mounted on a woolly rhino.

The Goblin Raiders

Facing the barbarians we had a goblin force consisting of 2 trolls, hordes of goblins and a large number of wolf riders.  Also, the woods are full of  (unridden) wolves.

[Side note: this force looks like more than 24AP to me.  Oh, well - mistakes may have been made, but if so then it didn't affect the end result, as you will see].

The Goblin Hooligans

The goblin force facing Santa also had two trolls.  It was lead by some greater goblin warbands and had huge numbers of lesser goblins.  Even when deployed, these vandals pushed over the signpost which led to the North Pole, thus earning the title "the hooligans".

The Battle

Most of Santa's army ran forwards as fast as they could.  The sleigh flew past the goblin lines and circled overhead, impervious to all.  On the other flank, the barbarians advanced cautiously, not wanting to fight in the wolf-infested forest.

In return, the goblin warbands and trolls charged off their hill.  They caught the elves before they could shoot and annihilated them.  On the far flank, the ice bears tore through hordes of lesser goblins - but there were always more of the nasty little creatures joining the back ranks.

Santa's snowmen had a minor moment of success when they flanked, outnumbered and swarmed a troll, but this didn't make up for the losses they were taking.

Finally, Santa in his sleigh descended and attacked some of the goblin warband.  Whilst he was very successful against a small part of the goblin host, their general and remaining troll made a run for Santa's cottage!  Desperately, the barbarians attempted to (a) prevent the other goblin army from interfering and (b) move some troops sideways to support Santa.  However, this level of coordination was just too much for their hairy, unwashed brains...

Santa overran his first opponents and flew towards the troll (which had just wiped out Santa's artillery with contemptuous ease).  Nearby, the goblin general eliminated all the snowmen who had been respawned in front of the cottage.

With a shout of triumph, the goblin hooligan's big boss broke into Santa's home.  They pushed over the signpost, cut down the trees, smashed the crockery and ransacked the place (opening all the presents and leaving torn wrappings everywhere).  Oh, dear!

Meanwhile, the ice bears continued to torment the goblin hordes, but just couldn't make headway against the ever-replenishing numbers.  The barbarian knights were cut off and destroyed, though their woolly rhino just kept ploughing forwards, pushing back whatever got in its way.  Finally, Santa was left arguing with a large, smelly troll about the proper meaning of Christmas.  Game over!

Conclusion

Well, that was an abrupt ending!

• The goblins timed their run for the cottage perfectly.  Santa simply couldn't catch all of them on his own and they breezed through the second echelon stuff that was left to guard the objective.
• Santa sacrificed some of his troops early in charging forwards; the shooters might have been better employed waiting for the enemy to come to them instead.
• The ice bears were bogged down fighting with vast hordes of goblins.  Even though they were generally winning each round of combat the bears had a long way to go before they could push the little monsters off the table.
• The barbarians were mesmerised by the wood full of wolves; fearful of a flank attack if they tried to skirt around it and not confident of their chances if they attacked the forest head on.
• When the barbarians eventually tried to redeploy, it was too complicated and too late.  All they did was sacrifice their mounted troops for no real gain.

So, a well-deserved victory to the goblin hooligans.  Let's hope that isn't an omen for Christmas 2021!

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers!

Zomtober 2021, Week 5

<==  For week 4, go this way

Introduction

You lucky people!  There are 5 Sundays in October this year, so that means you get to see 5 Zomtober posts from me.  Here's the article detailing my efforts for this fifth week.

"B" vs Fairly Average Zombie

Here we have an encounter between "B" ( a member of my occasional "Men in Blue" quasi-governmental organisation) and a fairly average zombie (who will be referred to as "FAZ" for short).

"B" has an assault rifle in one hand and that ought to stand him in good stead.  However, he has a magazine in the other hand.  Is he in the middle of reloading and about to insert fresh ammunition into the gun?  Has he removed the magazine because his weapon is jammed and he's trying to clear the blockage?  Or is there some other reason for the magazine in his hand?

Whatever the reason, "B" seems to have been taken by surprise.  Although FAZ doesn't look especially threatening (for a zombie!), I imagine that he's still quite capable of inflicting a nasty bite..

"B" was built from the old Wargames Atlantic "Apocalypse Survivors: the Men" kit.  Although the original supplier is long gone, I believe that this has just been relaunched as part of Warlord Games' "Project Z" range.

FAZ is a mixture of parts.  Most of him comes from Studio Miniatures' plastic zombie frame, but the arm with the briefcase is from one of the old Wargames Atlantic kits (I cannot remember which one).

Conclusion

As always, it's up to my readers to decide what happens next?  Will B reload his gun in time to blow the zombie's head off?  Or, failing that, will he quickly reverse the gun and use it as a club to beat FAZ down?  Or is the element of surprise in FAZ's favor: will the zed close and bite B before the man can react?

What do you think?

The next Zomtober post is here ==>

Mystery Inc and the Spooky Forest!

 Introduction

It's the end of October and I haven't put on a Halloween game for 2 years (global pandemic, you know...).  Since my local club is now meeting again, it is time for a special event!

This year, I arranged a 4-player game using the Fear and Faith rules from Ganesha Games.  These are a version of the popular Song of Blades and heroes engine, adapted for horror (Gothic through to modern).  Without further ado, on to the report...

The Forces

Mystery Inc

These characters shouldn't need much introduction, I think.  Their stats are taken directly from the "not Mystery Inc" characters in the Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters supplement to Fear and Faith:

• Fred (bold leader)
• Daphne (fashionable monster bait)
• Velma (intelligent scientist)
• Shaggy (hairy dropout)
• Scooby Doo (cowardly, greedy hound)

Girl Guide Camp

For reasons best known to themselves, the girl guides have camped in the middle of a gloomy, swampy forest.  They have several extremely competent ex-guides along as camp helpers and a surprisingly large assortment of weaponry.  Maybe this is preparation for their "Monster Hunting" badge?

• Brown Owl ("spiritual" leader, assault rifle)
• April (hockey stick, confident)
• May (machine pistol, confident)
• Sarah (ex-guide with crossbow and smart mouth)
• Ann (useless adult helper, screamer)
• Barbara (another ex-guide, the chosen one, sword, hero)

The Ghosts

So, the gloomy forest is haunted.  Who saw that coming?

• Night Wraith (fearful, immaterial, warlock)
• 2 x Reaper Ghost (fearful, immaterial, teleport)
• 2 x Banshee (haunt, immaterial, morose)

Note that these characters cannot harm any humans in combat (because they are immaterial), although the warlock can cast damaging spells.  Instead, they use Fear to try to scare away the humans.

Equally, they are immune to physical attacks from the good side (though Fred & Velma both have the conviction ability and Brown Owl can lead a "spiritual prayer" - some form of girl guide chant, I imagine -  both of which could destroy such spectres).

The Children of the Fields

It seems that the curse of the forest has spread to nearby farmland as well.  A sinister individual has animated a number of terrors and brought them to aid in chasing off the humans.

• Mister Wurzel (hard to kill, warlock)  Note that I couldn't find the model I wished to use for this character and had to make do with a ratman instead.  It's still somewhat appropriate, I think.
• 6 x Scarecrow (mindless, zombie, short move)
• 4 x bases of Rat Swarm (mindless, zombie, swarm)

Being mostly zombies, this force is slow, but very hard to destroy.  You can knock them down all you like; they'll just get back up again.  Mostly.

The Scenario

Setup

Setup is simple:

• The humans set up at the camp in the middle of the table.
• The monsters set up around any edge(s) they choose.  Note that the 2 banshees have the haunt special rule which ties them to a particular locality.  They were set up at the centre of their chosen haunted area instead (this could be anywhere on the table, as long as the haunted area didn't cover any of the campsite).

Winning & Losing

There are 6 objectives scattered around the table, all in different directions from the centre.

It takes a (human) character one action to investigate an objective:

• 3 of these objectives are false leads and (once discovered) play no further part in the game.
• The other 3 objectives are clues.

The humans win by picking up all the clues and then having the clue-holders meet together (in the centre?) to work out how to stop the monsters permanently (i.e by revealing the hidden projectors, taking off the villain's rubber mask, performing an exorcism or whatever...).

The monsters win by knocking out or scaring off all the humans.

The Game

Mystery Inc were very active right from the start.  They split up and looked for clues:

• Shaggy and Scooby went straight for the picnic objective, had a look and decided it was important.  Thereafter they mostly bumbled around aimlessly, getting in other people's way.
• Velma approached the shallow grave objective.  Initially she was put off by the nearby banshee, but when Fred arrived to help they saw it off with ease.  Sadly for them, the "shallow grave" turned out to be only some disturbed ground and a fallen branch that looked a bit like a cross.
• Daphne wandered through the foggy forest, looking for the lost cat objective (but becoming a bit lost herself, it seemed)

The girl guides also scattered in every direction:

• There was sporadic gunfire as Brown Owl opened up on the shambling scarecrows, but without much effect.  She did eventually manage to destroy one with a well-placed burst.
• Barbara (the chosen one) ambushed Mister Wurzel.  The warlock was hard-pressed to defend himself, but just managed to stay alive for now.

• Ann rushed too and fro, encountering the second banshee several times.  She probably thought there were such creatures everywhere; I don't think Ann realised that she was running in circles and meeting the same monster each time.  The end result of this was several debilitating rolls on the Insanity table and a lot of screaming from the terrified human.

The fight between Barbara and Mister Wurzel grew as other models from both sides approached.  Most significantly, the Night Wraith joined Mister Wurzel and between them the two warlocks threw curse after curse at the chosen one.  However, neither transfix spells nor lightning bolts had any effect; Barbara just shrugged them all off.

Daphne finally managed to grab the lost cat, though only when April came to help.  It was a real clue, so Mystery Inc had now found two of the three necessary items to solve the puzzle!

On the whole, the monsters were finding it hard to move their followers.  The scarecrows were unmotivated and slow, but one of the ghosts suffered a teleport disaster; it ended up in the far corner of the table.

At least the rat swarms were finally on the move, read to invade the campsite.

Seeing the danger, Fred and Daphne rushed over and attacked the rodent horde.  It turns out that the rats weren't as tough as might have been thought; they were easily scattered (i.e. "knocked down").  Before they could regroup, the humans destroyed half of the swarm (and yes, Daphne's killer heels did exactly that).

Meanwhile, Velma had been left a bit shaky after encountering the second banshee (i.e. one roll on the Insanity table).  Despite this, she rallied, stepped forward and disproved the apparition through the force of science - whereupon it vanished for good.

In their milling around, Scooby and Shaggy had become separated.  The former now found himself beside Sarah, manfully (womanfully and dogfully?) fighting a pair of scarecrows.  To everyone's amazement, Scooby knocked down his opponent and then destroyed it.  Personally, I think he caught his leg in the scarecrow's clothing and then ripped it apart as he turned to flee...

In the long-running fight near the swamp, May had been transfixed by a stray spell.  The poor little girl was rooted to the spot, unable to move for fear of the Night Wraith.

Things seemed to be looking up for the humans though: the chosen one finally chopped the head off Mister Wurzel, sending the heap of ragged clothes tumbling to the ground, dead.

...or was he dead?  Mister Wurzel rose from the mist, as whole as before (that's the hard to kill ability; it was triggered almost immediately by a nearby ghost scaring Brown Owl just out of picture).

The sight was too much for May; she collapsed in a faint and was out of the game.  Even Barbara stumbled back in shock and tripped over a tree root.

However, this was too little, too late for the monster side.  Having destroyed the guardian banshee, Velma recovered the ancient sword clue.  In the last turn of the game (because we had to pack up), she ran for the campfire where Scooby and Daphne were waiting with the other two clues.  She needed three move actions to make it in a single turn, but only rolled two successes and came up a little bit short.

Conclusion

So, who won?  If we had time for another turn, it was almost certain that Velma would have made it into the centre, thus completing all the clues and winning the game.  There was really nothing the monsters could have done to stop her.

In the end, both monster forces (the ghosts and the scarecrows & rats) had lost about half their models.  Against this, the humans only lost May, though Ann was pretty much a gibbering wreck and even Velma was feeling a bit "wobbly".  Can the monsters claim a moral victory for delaying the humans so much that time ran out?  Perhaps, perhaps not.

This scenario was designed to make the humans split up; it worked admirably in that respect.

I'm also pleased with the force compositions.  In particular, the ghosts were intended to be an unconventional threat, using fear as their main effect.  This seemed more appropriate than physical violence in a "Scooby Doo" game.  I think it all worked very well in the end.

See you next Halloween!