Army Showcase: 28mm Prehistoric Megafauna

Introduction

For my non-zoologist, younger readers, who didn't study Latin or Greek at school, "megafauna" means "giant animals".  During the last Ice Age, a number of species of mammals grew to extraordinary size, possibly as a defence against predators.  Many of these were contemporary with early man, though in at least some cases the men were then responsible for hastening the extinction of such large sources of meat.

My interest in these creatures comes from tales such as "The Lost World", where they might be encountered by Edwardian explorers.  Potentially, megafauna provide some of the more dangerous encounters for such groups; they are difficult to kill with hand weapons (short of specialised, heavy rifles) and can be very destructive if aroused.

Northern Hemisphere

First up, here is a small herd of Megaloceros.  I've included a Neanderthal hunter to act as a size reference; megaloceros could easily have an antler spread of 12 feet or more!  The 2 models on the left are from Primaeval Designs; the one on the right is from Steve Barber Models (look for "25/28mm Ranges", then "Prehistoric Animals").

Here's something everyone associates with the Ice Age: wooly mammoths!  This pair are from DeeZee and are still available from NorthStar, I think.

...whereas these two are from Primaeval Designs.  They are somewhat bulkier than the DeeZee ones, but much the same height.  I acquired these at a much later date and so the basing is a bit different.  Also the colour scheme doesn't quite match.  I just regard them as older (or younger) individuals, but still the same species!

Finally, here's a shot of the whole herd.  Note that the long, curving tusks make these a real problem to store; they don't fit neatly into any size or shape of box!

Asia

Our poor Neanderthal has encountered a pair of Elasmotheriums (Elasmotherii?).  These are a variety of giant rhinoceros, though not the possibly more famous Wooly Rhinoceros.  The full-grown adult on the left is from Primaeval Designs, whilst the frisky juvenile on the right is a DeeZee model.

South America

Some of the strangest animals on the planet (at least, to Northern eyes) come from South America.  Here are a couple of examples:

Glyptodon is a giant armadillo; early man probably used their shells to shelter from bad weather.  This example is from Steve Barber Models.

Finally, here are a pair of Megatheriums (Megatherii?).  The smaller version on the right is an early Steve Barber model and isn't much to my taste.  The larger model, on the left, is from Brigade Games (the US company, not the similarly-named but unconnected UK company "Brigade Models").  This is much better, in my view: both the size and the general shape of the animal are closer to the historical data!

Conclusion

All of the above mammals were contemporary or near-contemporary with early man; it's not perhaps too much of a stretch of imagination to have an isolated group encountering Victorian or Edwardian adventurers, or even modern man, in some remote part of the world.  I've even used some in a science fiction game, as the denizens of a primitive world being explored by a Klingon away team!

For gaming purposes, I believe that most megafauna that are not familiar with man should have considerable behavioural differences from their smaller brethren.  These are animals that are pretty much immune to predators, at least when fully grown.  They will therefore tend to react aggressively to any puny human who attempts to molest them.  At least, that's what I've tried to convey in my "Attributes for Animals" house rules for the "Adventures in the Lost Lands" rules.

The most comprehensive list of models of prehistoric animals suitable for wargaming is undoubtedly Steve Pugh's "Very True Things".  I'd like to thank Steve for making this data available; it's a very useful resource!

Finally, for those of you that are impressed by scale: a fully-grown mammoth might be 10 feet tall.  But, sticking with mammals, if your adventurers go back 30 million years or so then they might meet a Baluchitherium instead; this could be 16 feet tall and weigh 18 tons!

I think we're going to need a bigger gun...

5150: Retrieve the Agent!

Mission Briefing

The crew of the Klingon starship P'Rang (last seen taking a hunting vacation on the planet Prehistorica) have a new mission.  An agent of theirs - an alien trader called Hoix - has broken protocol to request immediate evacuation from his spying assignment on the planet Tantalus III.  Their task: to recover the spy before the local defence forces find and arrest him!

Because this is a covert mission, the Klingon away team have flown in and landed close to the rendezvous point.  Tantalus III is a medium technology world with a lot of air traffic, but it's well within their capabilities to detect illicit transporter beams.

The Klingon shuttle is just off the nearest edge of the board; all they have to do is walk to the buildings, meet the agent, escort him back to the shuttle and return to their ship.  Should be simple, right?

Something's Wrong?

The crew decided to enter the table from the bottom left, between the river and the road.  Immediately Vagh, the security chief, exclaimed "This can't be right, Captain!  We are supposed to meet Hoix at a farmhouse, but all I see are ruins.  I advise caution!"

"Bah!" snorted Mor'tah, the captain.  "We need to do this quickly.  Come with me!"  He set off down the road towards the remains of the dwelling and the rest of the team followed him.

Initially, the Klingons' confidence seemed justified as even the highest-rated PEFs (Possible Enemy Forces) turned out to be just the security chief's imagination playing tricks on him.

However, this couldn't go on forever.  The away team had almost reached the road junction when some of the local planetary militia came round the corner of the hill.  The starship crew were not really equipped for a firefight and mostly had only short-ranged sidearms; nevertheless those that could immediately opened fire on the natives.

The militia returned fire, though with more enthusiasm than skill.  Nevertheless, their initial volleys left Maal (security) apparently dead and several of the other Klingons diving for cover, grunting as they shrugged off light wounds (remember that many of this away team have powerful attributes such as Hard as nails and Resilient).

The tide turned when the Klingons began to hit their targets and in a matter of moments 2 of the militia were dead, 1 was badly wounded and two had broken and were running for their lives.  Vagh brandished his bat'leth and charged the sole survivor.  Amazingly, the soldier chose to stand and shoot - but he made the bad mistake of missing the approaching Klingon blademaster.  The melee was over very quickly as the starship's security chief dispatched the brave farm boy.

"Two to beam directly to sick bay.  Medical emergency!" called Sira into her communicator as she administered first aid to the stricken Maal.  The captain added "Take the prisoner with you as well.  We need to know what's going on here!"  As the medical officer and the casualties vanished, Mor'tah spoke again.  "Well, they know we're here now.  We'd better get a move on, before any reinforcements arrive".

The remaining 4 Klingons jogged down the road and up to the ruined farmstead.  Immediately a strange alien stepped out from hiding.  "Captain, you've got to get me off this planet right now!  We must leave immediately" he cried.
"I give the orders round here!" roared Mor'tah.  "What is so urgent that you fail to report properly?!"
Hoix replied "Bugs, captain!  Bugs!"

Although the captain couldn't understand why the alien was so afraid of a few cockroaches, his obvious terror was unsettling.  The group started to run back towards their shuttle.

They had traveled most of the way back when several giant bugs erupted out of a newly-formed hole in the earth.  The Klingons opened fire, but didn't achieve much.  Before they knew it, the creatures were upon them!

Vagh, the blademaster, managed to fend off 2 of the beasts in a dazzling display of combat skills, whilst N'Kara just held her own against a single monster, albeit one with 2 heads.  Hoix fled, screaming.

Leyra joined in the melee to distract the 2-headed bug, thus allowing N'Kara to make a killing blow with her bat'leth.  Mor'tah fired at the others, causing one to back off, screeching and roaring.  Even though he was only facing one opponent now, Vagh only just managed to fend off its ferocious assault.

Just then, another hole opened up near the road junction and a larger swarm of bugs poured out of it.  Strangely, everything seemed to go into slow motion as the Klingons fought for their lives; the bugs seemed to be barely moving.  [Most of the game had gone by without the combined activation rolls of '7' needed to trigger a bug hole - but now they came thick and fast.  Luckily for the Klingons, the bugs then rolled a long succession of '5's and '6' for activation and so couldn't move].

The Klingons turned and fled, Mor'tah having taken out Vagh's last hand-to-hand opponent with a superb disruptor shot.  The bugs were fast, but the away team had a head start on this swarm.

Even as the last 2 Klingons approached the edge of the board (where their shuttle was hidden), a third hole broke open and yet more creatures poured out of it.  The stragglers barely made it to the shuttle in time; there were a few bangs and thumps on the hull as it lifted off and sped back to the P'Rang.

"I see" said Mor'tah.  "Bugs".

The First of the Zombie Vixens!

My Birthday

It was my birthday last Friday and amongst the socks and handkerchiefs, my loving family gave me a box of Wargames Factory's latest product: the zombie vixens.
Technically, I had bought this myself, but when the wife saw them delivered just a day or two before my birthday, she snaffled the box and hid it so that it could be gift-wrapped and handed back to me on my special day.  Mind you, it's a good way of ensuring that I get what I want!

The Box

This isn't going to be an in-depth review of the product; if you're looking for that then I apologise in advance.  Instead, it's just an initial reaction and my first 2 painted examples.

Others have already described Wargames Factory's packaging for this particular product as "lurid".  I completely agree with this assessment and am slightly despondent that they felt this to be an appropriate selling point.  After all, female zombies would make up roughly half of the population, wouldn't they?  I known that I've been wanting more variety in my collection and I imagine that a number of other zombie gamers have also been awaiting this set for the same reasons.  There's no need to try to invoke necrophilia!

The models themselves are definitely on the skinny side (no pun intended).  Most are acceptable as reasonably healthy young women (well, before they became zombies, obviously!), though the one in the evening dress is much too anorexic for my liking.  My main concern here is that the finished figures may prove fragile in use.  So, they're not perfect - but I'll make the models up and use them anyway, won't I!

The Maid

This model is based on the body described elsewhere on the net as the "I need to pee" pose.  For a zombie, odd poses can be accepted, but this one certainly looks a bit strange.  Note that the high heels are incredibly thin; technically this box is much more advanced than Wargames Factory's first efforts.

The Lifeguard

The lifeguard is in the "Superman" pose.  Also a bit strange.  I wondered at first whether this body was intended to be a crawler, but it doesn't really work for that.  Perhaps I'll make the other copies of this pose climb over an obstacle or something like that.

Finally

So now I've got another 28 "vixens" to paint - 34 if you include the bonus crawlers.  Just when my painting desk was getting back into some sort of order.  And there's Studio Miniatures' plastic zombies to come soon as well.  Should keep me going for a bit...

ATZ-FFO Campaign, Game 5. The Battle of Golden Hills (Part 2)

 (continued from part 1)

Trapped?

As the residents frantically barricaded the front door and windows of Gertrude & Albert's cottage, more zombies were approaching from the north-west.
By now, PEF-6 had come into the open and was resolved as a false alarm - but it had raised the encounter level to 2.
It wasn't any great surprise when we had the first random event of the game - a car alarm went off!  Obviously, the blue car had a sensitive motion detector and the nearby lurching of the zombies triggered it.  The creatures milled around the vehicle, temporarily distracted from their quest for meat!

John and Darcy could only watch as more and more zombies gathered around the front of the cottage.  Occasionally, one of them would catch sight of one of the men standing in the open, but careful shots from John's or Darcy's pistol took them down before they could get too close.

Another random event occurred; it was with a sinking feeling that the humans remembered the nearby lockup garages.  They had spent effort in preparing them as a refuge some time previously, but obviously no-one could reach them now!

Back at the cottage, the zombies were massing and the barricades were failing.  Just before the mob broke through, Bomber hustled the old folks back into the bedroom.  He took a look around, wondering whether he should attempt a last stand on his own (well, with Clancy the wolfhound), but thought better of it and followed the other humans.

Even as Bomber closed the door behind him and the group prepared to barricade it, trouble came from behind.  The zombies who were distracted by the car alarm had lost interest in it and continued to shamble up the road.  When they saw the flurry of activity behind the bedroom curtains, they immediately started pounding on the window, breaking the glass and reaching in to grab whatever they could!

This was Clancy's moment.  With a low "wuff", he leaped at the intruders and sent them sprawling!  In FFO, beating a zombie in melee doesn't automatically dispatch it.  You use your margin of victory as "impact" when assessing damage, so it pays to win big!  Otherwise the opponent will be knocked down - and a knocked-down zombie will just get back up again.

Quick as a flash, Bomber and Salty rushed to the window and opened fire with shotgun and pistol.  They both hit their targets; the shotgun blew apart one of the enemy, but Salty's shots merely thudded into the zombie's body without crippling it.

A Change of Heart!

At the front of the cottage, the door and one of the windows finally crashed open as the last of the barricade was swept aside.  Then, one of those game-changing moments occurred.  A random event was indicated and a "He's over here!" card was drawn.  This is not a part of ATZ-FFO, but rather is one of the new events in my random event deck.  It has the effect of making zombies suddenly take notice of a character of whom they were previously oblivious.

There was a brief pause as the mob at the front of the cottage hesitated before entering.  In that moment, Laddie gave a little yelp of excitement.  The crowd of zombies turned, saw the man standing in the open and immediately lurched eagerly in his direction.  "Bollocks!" exclaimed John, as he turned and fled.

At the same time, Salty and Bomber continued to fire on the remaining zombies at the back of the cottage, destroying both with ease.  In FFO, dice rolls for gunshots or other noise are now made immediately, rather than at the end of the turn.  Although the humans had been lucky so far and hadn't attracted any more zombies, their luck turned as Salty's shots caused a newcomer to enter the table right behind an unsuspecting Darcy.

Despite being taken by surprise, Darcy managed to disable his attacker.  There is no specific penalty for a rear attack in FFO, although a character won't be able to use a melee weapon in such a situation.

Darcy then ran round the back of the nearest cottage, as some of the zombie mob split off from chasing John in order to pursue him instead.  He had intended to climb through a window and join Bomber's group, but decided that the pursuit was too close to attempt this.  Instead, he just kept running...

This is The End, My Friend.

The zombies lost sight of Darcy fairly quickly.  However, they were now perfectly positioned to see the huddled group in the back bedroom.  One of them broke the glass and leaned inside, champing and clawing at whatever it could reach.  As the pensioners screamed, Salty collapsed to the floor.  "He bit me!" mumbled the Captain, before he started to convulse.  In FFO, you test immediately on being wounded or stunned by a zombie to see if you are infected.  If so then you might change into a zombie yourself, on a '1' on your first activation, '1' or '2' on the second activation and so on.  Salty failed the "Harry" test and then rolled a '1'.

"Everybody, get out of here!  Now!" yelled Bomber.  The residents were only too happy to obey and left the bedroom as quickly as they could.  "Sorry, mate" he whispered, as he chambered a shell in his shotgun and blew away the newly risen Salty zombie.

Another random event!  This time it was "out of fuel", which wasn't too important since no-one was driving at the time.  However, for future reference, it's Darcy's red compact that is empty.

More and more of the zombie horde clustered around the bedroom window.  "Come and get it, you dead b*stards!" yelled Bomber, as he exterminated them ruthlessly with his shotgun.  He was past caring about the noise now; he just wanted revenge.  Bomber was very lucky with his rolls to attract zombies.  Out of 36 or more dice for noise, he only generated 2 new zeds, but he killed many more than that!

A Walk in the Park

Meanwhile, John and Laddie were hotly pursued by the other, smaller part of the mob.  Laddie didn't seem to understand the new game very well and fell behind.  Just as John turned round to see where the dog was, the 2 leading zombies reached for him!

Laddie ran between the legs of one of the clumsy zeds and tripped him up, even as the other clutched at him and missed.  Amazingly, the REP 2 dog won one melee (by 1) and was evenly matched in the other!

 Without hesitating, John pulled out his pistol and fired into the melee.  He killed one zombie outright and knocked down the last one, before calling Laddie to heel.  FFO has rules for firing into a crowd.  Roughly, if you hit your target then that's fine.  If you miss by a wide margin then you miss completely.  But if you almost hit the intended target then you actually hit something else close by.  John's shooting was very, very accurate and he didn't hit Laddie!  Mind you, I forgot in the heat of the moment that an Impact 1 pistol doesn't cause knockdowns!

Back in Abe's cottage, Lizzie was peering out of the window.  She could see Albert, Gertrude and Edna preparing to flee from the furthest cottage.  She also saw a single zombie come round the end of the cottage after them.

Quickly, Lizzie explained the situation to Abe.
"Can you shoot, miss?" he asked.  "I reckon your hands are steadier than mine".  She nodded, so he passed her his hunting rifle.

Carefully, Lizzie edged the window open and stuck the rifle through the opening.  She took careful aim, squeezed the trigger and shot the zombie through the head.

That's All, Folks...

Sadly, at this point, we ran out of time and had to pack up.  However, there were only 2 or 3 scattered zombies left on the table and all the PEFs had been resolved as nerves or figments of the imagination.  From that point of view, the game was all but over, so I ruled that the remaining humans could have hunted down and destroyed the surviving zeds reasonably easily.

John, Bomber, Darcy and Lizzie had all killed zombies and the victory conditions for the game were met (i.e. defend the homes).  All four were therefore eligible to roll for an increase in REP and astonishingly, all of them were successful!.  That means that John and Bomber are now both REP-6 hard men and Darcy and Lizzie are each a very capable REP-5.

ATZ-FFO

So, what's it like playing with ATZ:Final Fade Out?

Well, much of what we used would be very familiar to anyone who knows ATZ:BDTZ.  The initiative rolls, shooting and zombie movement are similar to the older rules, though not necessarily identical.

Many of the rules that are different from ATZ:BDTZ didn't come into play in this game.  The new In Sight test wasn't used because there weren't any other humans (In Sight isn't triggered by zombies).  The FFO encounter tables weren't used because none of the PEFs was anything more than imagination.  Mind you, I would probably have used my own encounter cards anyway.  We didn't need to use the FFO vehicle rules or the campaign rules.  In the rush I forgot to apply some of the standard reaction tests (most obviously, Man Down when Salty fell and probably Zed or no zed for the old folks.  Although Bomber would likely have passed and the others intended to run away anyway, so I can claim that the outcome would have been the same if I had remembered to take these).

FFO has new (or more developed) rules to cover a number of useful situations, such as shooting into a crowd or barricading doors and windows.  Interactions between vehicles and pedestrians are better defined, whether involving shooting or charging.  Lots of things are clearer.

Melee is totally different.  I like very much the fact that the margin of victory is used in determining damage.  I'm neutral about the melee ending after one set of rolls (we used to like the to-and-fro tension as each side's pool of dice shrank with each successive roll, until finally one side failed completely), or about melee being resolved one opponent at a time (no more decisions about how to split your available dice).  I expect I'll keep using these rules as written.  I'm really not sure I like the lack of a possible failure on the Charge into melee table: the attacker will always charge home.  Finally, I'm not comfortable with the lack of a penalty for a surprise melee attack, such as from behind.  Still, these are items which are easily amended by house rules if I choose.
Finally, the penalty for losing a round of melee to a zombie is likely to be severe.  If you are bitten then you will turn into a zombie and that is likely to be sooner rather than later.  Poor Captain Salty.

Game 6 can be found here.

ATZ-FFO Campaign, Game 5. The Battle of Golden Hills

The Setup

"Golden Hills" is a residential complex for the elderly, mentioned a few times previously in my ATZ campaign.  Indeed, recently I described the building of a model for this area (here), so it cannot be a surprise to any followers of my blog that the action has now moved there.

This is the first game I'll have played since receiving my finished deck of random events back from the printers.  I'm hoping that there will be interesting opportunities to see them in action.

I'm extremely fortunate to have a preview copy of the yet-to-be-published ATZ-Final Fade Out rules (ATZ-FFO from now on) from Two Hour Wargames, so this game will be a playtest for them.  I'll try to point out the differences from the current edition (ATZ-BDTZ) as we go.

The Story so far

After the disastrous attempt by the authorities to impose quarantine on the early stages of the zombie outbreak (here), the plague is spreading.  A number of people are staying at Golden Hills in addition to the official residents.  In some cases this is to help protect a relative; in others it's because their own homes are overrun, destroyed or quarantined.  Present today are:

• Albert and Gertrude, REP 2 residents.  Gertrude has a chainsaw, but Albert is a little confused.
• Edna (the crazy cat lady), REP 2 resident.  She is always surrounded by a number of cats.
• Abe, REP 3 resident.  He has a hunting rifle, but is in an invalid carriage.
• Captain Salty, REP 4 resident with a BA pistol.
• John (the photographer), REP 5 grandson of Albert and Gertrude.  John has a camera with a powerful flashgun and a pistol that he took from a ganger (here).  He is followed everywhere by "Laddie", a REP 2 collie dog that he rescued from zombies (here).
• Bomber, REP 5.  He is the brother of Chad, who was the concierge/janitor for Golden Hills until he was killed by gangers (here).  Bomber has baseball bat and also a shotgun, obtained from an abandoned police station (here).  Additionally, he's now looking after Clancy, the REP 6 wolfhound who was nearly killed here.
• Darcy and Lizzie, REP 4 friends of John.  It was their wedding that was interrupted when John first heard of the zombie outbreak and had to rescue Albert and Gertrude (here).  Both have pistols, but haven't yet found a change from their wedding clothes.  Or they've decided to stay dressed up until they can find a minister to finish the ceremony for them - I haven't really decided!

Other characters who have appeared in previous episodes (Terry and Goofy) are out foraging for supplies.

Note that in FFO, characters are defined by REP (as before) but also have 2 skills: PEOPLE and SAVVY.  These are used respectively for social interactions or knowledge-based problems.  Since none of my character cards have these skills on them, I'll make up the values if/when I need them for a specific character.

This game will be treated as rural and encounter level 1, mainly because it's a quiet part of the town and lawlessness (and the zombie plague!) haven't yet touched it.  Rural determines the chances of generating zombies with gunfire or other noises as well as being a modifier on the "how many" table when resolving a PEF.  Encounter Level is used to decide whether a PEF is real or imaginary and also the chances of a random event.

Rather than have players entering a table that is occupied by zombies as is common in scenarios such as "search", I've reversed the sides so that zombies and PEFs will enter from random edges whilst the players occupy the centre.  House rule: any player characters who start in a building will have their REP halved (rounded down) for purposes of activation until they are alerted by a friend, gunshots or seeing an enemy.

It was a calm, clear morning at Golden Hills, just like many before.  John had just taken Laddie out to do what dogs do in the mornings when he bumped into Darcy and Lizzie coming out of one of the other houses.  Everyone else was getting up, washing and preparing breakfast...

The Moaning

As Laddie greeted Darcy, John stopped to listen.  "Do you hear that?" he said.
Lizzie replied "No!  It can't be!"  They could all clearly hear a low moaning sound coming from the north by now.
"Right!" said John.  "We have to warn everyone.  Lizzie, you go to Abe's.  Darcy, you take Edna.  I'll tell Gertrude and Albert".

The zombies shambled forwards slowly (In FFO, zombies are REP 4 for activation when chasing a character, but otherwise they are REP 3).  The PEFs all alternated between advancing and retreating, but never came into sight of any character.  This caused mild consternation, but soon the players had other things to worry about.

Most of the occupants of the houses poured out onto the central path, with the exception of Lizzie and Abe.  They were much closer to the advancing creatures and decided to just lie low instead.

"Quickly" called John.  "Everyone, follow me!"  He herded the group into the nearest building, but they had been seen.  The group of zombies coming from the west noticed the last of the humans as they shut the door of Albert and Gertrude's house.  The moans grew more insistent as the small pack picked up their pace.

They were so intent on chasing their prey that they failed to notice Lizzie and Abe hiding in the first cottage they passed.

Darcy ran to the nearest car, intending to drive it in front of the cottage door as a barricade.  John and Laddie sprinted out after him, but they quickly decided that they hadn't got enough time to carry out their plan.

Instead, they leaped out of the car and fled on foot.

The zombies caught sight of the cottage's inhabitants as they frantically tried to barricade the door and front windows.  This was much closer than the 2 fleeing men and so they all crowded round the building, tearing and clawing at the hastily-erected defences.

More and more zombies entered the complex.  Attracted by the noises, they concentrated on the cottage that held the bulk of the humans, bypassing completely the building where Lizzie and Abe remained in hiding.


To be continued...Part 2 is here