In Praise of Plastic Women

Introduction

Most 28mm models of modern civilians are male, whether armed or not.  There are some females available, but for cheapness nothing beats em-4's gangers.  2 of the 5 figures on each sprue are female; here's one of them:

Um.  It's not the most impressive figure, is it?  Neither the sculpting nor the moulding of the model are up to the standards of the industry's best.  However, it is plastic and it is cheap; these put together make this a converter's dream!

OK, let's see what we can do with this...

Green Eyes

Here's one I painted a long time ago.  This figure has been cleaned up a bit (mould lines removed, filler applied to the shoulders and other places), but is otherwise just a straightforward paint job.  This is "Green Eyes", a junior gang member or not-very-confident zombie apocalypse survivor.

Jade

One of the interesting things about the em-4 plastic models is that each figure comes in 3 parts: body (legs & back torso), upper (front torso and head) and arms/weapon.  They're designed so that you can mix and match the parts, up to a point.  Jade is made from the same legs and arms as before, but using a different front/head part.  She's also a gang member, but looks quite a bit more confident.

Sally

As well as the plastic parts, metal weapon and torso/head parts are available from em-4.  Sally has been made from the same body as before, but with some of these metal parts.  She has "big hair", a considerable scowl, some form of body armour (chainmail?!) and carries an autocannon.  This time I decided that the skinny legs were not what I wanted, so I gave her a knee-length skirt from green stuff.  Not someone I'd like to meet in a dark alley!

Penny

Finally, Penny uses the same legs as all the others and the same top and backpack as Green Eyes.  She's a more significant conversion, though.  Firstly, she has some hiking shorts instead of the lycra leggings.  All the bottles, holster & other gear have been removed from her belt.  Finally, instead of a pistol she holds an R/C unit.  This is used to direct her friend, the robot "B-9" [The robot is probably made of fibreglass or plywood.  I don't think it would be able to hurt the opposition - but it should have rules which would encourage creative game-play!  I'm working on it...]

Ramblings

One of these days, I'd like to run a zombie game set in a Science Fiction convention.  This is, of course, at least partly in homage to the book "The Night of the Living Trekkies".  The book wasn't bad, but the trailer was awesome!  When/if I do this, Penny and her robot will appear, as will my Star Trek re-enactors Pike and Pavel (last seen being chased by zombies here).  Plus many other stereotypes and characters yet to be decided...

5150: Installing the Acoustic Sensor Net

Introduction

The planet of Tantalus III was recently the scene of a violent confrontation between a group of Klingon spies and a patrol from the Planetary Defence Force (PDF): here.  PDF troops have scoured the area but have been unable to find either the insurgents or several of their missing soldiers.  The local army headquarters have come to the conclusion that the Klingons must have a well-camouflaged underground base and have ordered that acoustic probes be installed to cover the area, in order to discover the location of this base.  They couldn't be more wrong...

The Setup

5 teams of the Planetary Defence Force were deployed to install acoustic sensor probes.  3 of these teams were experienced (REP4), whilst 2 groups were rookies (REP3).  3 troopers in each team carried a gauss rifle.  The 4th member had a light support weapon of some kind - mostly chain guns with the occasional rocket or grenade launcher.  The platoon also had the services of a lightly-armoured "Valkyrie" scout walker with REP 4 crew members.

The rules for installing the acoustic sensor net were simple.  A team would take an entire activation to deploy a sensor, each sensor would have an effective radius of 18" and the PDF would "win" when every part of the board was in range of at least one sensor.

Just to keep the players on their toes, I deployed 3 PEF (possible enemy forces) markers.  2 ended up in the large wood in the centre and the 3rd was behind the far right hill.  Unknown to the players, these PEFs were all decoys that would resolve as "nothing there".  The real threat came from underground...

The Game

To start with, the troops advanced slowly, dutifully emplacing sensors as they went (the small, blue markers).  2 of the 3 PEFs moved into sight and were discarded, leaving just a single, stubborn PEF in the woods, refusing to move.  The players quickly realised that the near side of the table wasn't covered adequately by their sensor grid, so team 5 dropped back to fill in the gaps.

After a number of sensors had been positioned, the combined activation dice came up as a '7' and I dutifully placed a bug hole.  Twice as many bugs as troopers were indicated, so 48 in total (counting the walker as equivalent to 4 people).  That's a lot of bugs!

The players panicked for a moment and the walker "buttoned up" (shut and locked all its hatches!), but quickly the troopers decided to use their firepower.  It turns out that 5 fireteams with automatic weapons can kill about 15 or so targets that aren't under cover every turn.  I'm not counting the walker because throughout the game its gunner rolled very poorly; its vulcan gun barely claimed 1 victim per turn.  The bugs froze for a couple of turns (missed activation rolls);it began to look as if the troopers would finish off this swarm without even breaking a sweat!

Of course, we then rolled another '7' for activation; a second bug hole appeared amongst the ruined buildings.  This time, 96 bugs emerged.  I promptly ran out of models and had to resort to placing I.O.U. counters (each red marker is worth another 10 bugs).

The troops didn't even get a chance to move before another swarm of bugs arrived.  This time they were flyers and they arrived right behind team 5.  Indeed, team 5's position now looked extremely precarious; they were sandwiched between the aerial newcomers behind them and the huge swarm in front of them, just the other side of the hill!

While this happened, the walker advanced in an attempt to stomp on the remaining bugs from swarm A.  Two of the critters leaped out of the way, while a third scuttled nimbly up a leg and onto the top of the vehicle.  The airwaves went blue as the vehicles's commander called for assistance into his comm unit.  "Get it off us!  Someone, please - shoot it off!  All fireteams, target the Valkyrie!  Ah - just small arms, though - don't use the rocket launcher!"  Fireteam 4 duly hosed the scout down with its minigun (and killed the beastie) before they ran further up the road.

Teams 2, 3 and 4 then fled up the road, followed some way behind by team 5.  The huge swarm B and the winged swarm C hadn't yet reacted to this when a 4th group of bugs appeared - this time almost straight in front of the fleeing soldiers.  Some days it's just not worthwhile for a squaddie to get out of bed.  Again, the red tokens are each an I.O.U. for 10 more bugs; I really ran out of models badly in this game!

The soldiers didn't get much further before the monsters were upon them from all sides!  Several men were killed immediately, though interestingly the flying bugs had a hard time against teams 4 and 5.  The specialist in team 2 did surprisingly well against warrior bugs from swarm D; he survived an attack by several bugs by firing his grenade launcher directly down the throat of one of the vicious creatures.

Team 1 was alone on the other side of the wood.  They had an easier time of it because only a couple of bugs found them.  Still, one of those managed to kill a trooper before being gunned down, whereupon the 2nd bug charged and did the same again.

The walker was now in serious trouble.  A large number of bugs assaulted it and even though many were crushed underfoot by the driver's cunning manoeuvres, 10 of them still managed to climb onto various parts of the machine.  It was probably only a matter of time before one of them managed to find a weak spot and disable the vehicle.

The winged beasties may not have been as deadly as the other creatures, but they did hold up teams 4 and 5 until the ground-based swarm arrived.  As the game ended, it was looking pretty grim for the last few soldiers...

The End

Well, that didn't go as I had expected!  Those "4 times number of humans" swarms are incredibly nasty; once that occurred there wasn't really much chance for anyone who didn't run immediately.  To be fair, the players did run, but then were even more unlucky that more swarms appeared to their sides and in front of them.  Truly, I think that Tantalus III will have to be abandoned to the bugs now!

A couple of members of team 1 would have escaped, had we continued.  Probably.

Shapeways Models

Introduction

I've watched the development of 3d printing techniques with considerable interest over the past few years.  This is the technology where a 3d software design is downloaded from a computer into a machine which then carves or fuses those instructions into a real, solid item.
At the moment the equipment to accomplish this is beyond all bar the most serious private individual, but there are companies who will take your design and print it on their machines.  The best known of these is Shapeways.  Many people upload model starship designs to the Shapeways web site; most of these can then be bought by a 3rd party (such as me).  Recently I ordered a few such models...

White Detail

The first choice one has to make when ordering 3d prints is the material from which they should be constructed.  Shapeways offer 8 or 9 different choices for these items, but actually I believe that many of these are just differently-coloured versions of the same basic stuff.  There is, however, a strong price gradient between the cheapest, lower detail matrix and the most expensive, best detail material.

For these Tiberian Pugius destroyers, I chose the "White Detail" material; this is a compromise between definition and price (mind you, they still cost quite a bit!)  I'll use them as smaller, old-style Romulan ships for Full Thrust.  It's hard to see in these pictures, but the smooth surfaces really are quite smooth, though there's some roughness around the edges.

Undercoated

Here's another shot of a Pugius destroyer, along with a S'ten Vastam light cruiser.  This time, the models have been undercoated; the Pugius is looking quite clean.  However, the S'ten Vastam is distinctly rough; it looks as if it has a hairy fringe all round the model.  Note that this is definitely how it was manufactured; it's not a result of me undercoating the model in a dusty room or anything like that!

Bellerophon

Finally, this is a photo of a completed, painted Bellerophon class light cruiser; I've named her "Endeavour".  Not the Star Trek "Voyager" at all, no sirree!  Any resemblance is purely accidental, I'm sure...

Again, this model has some definite rough edges, although I suspect and hope that they won't be noticeable at normal viewing distances.  Still, they really annoy me!  Bear in mind, though, that all of these models are between 1.5" and 2" (4-5cm) in size, so they're really quite small.

Conclusion

I'm impressed at the variety of offerings that are available at Shapeways.  For starship models, there is a useful discussion here, though I'm aware that there are also many naval models and World War I aircraft for sale.  The detail is not as good on the finished item as I'd like, though they are getting better all the time.  The cost is still relatively high as well, so this isn't the way to construct your horde armies.  Metal, resin or injection moulded plastic are all better quality and cheaper - for now.  But watch this space: I'm reasonably confident that this technology is going to become very significant within the next 5 years or less!

HOTT: All Hallows Eve!

Introduction

Since this week's Games Club night was the day before Halloween, I decided to host something involving spooks and other night terrors.  I'm something of a traditionalist at heart, so I chose to put on a 72AP game of Hordes of the Things (HotT), pitting the resurgent Knights of Lyonesse against my undead army: the Cabal of the Black Hand.

As before, the forces of Lyonesse comprise many noble knights with a scattering of heroes, an aerial hero (Bertrand de Fleury, a distant relative of Sir Alain Fleury who died fighting goblins here) and a paladin (Saint Florence of Artenay).
Against them, the Cabal's army is led by magicians and has hordes of ghouls, skeletons and zombies.  Also of note: the near flank has some sneakers (ghosts/spirits), the centre has an evil undead hero and many bats, while the far wing has a large mounted contingent.

The Battle

The small border village of Valence-sur-Aignan is under threat from an invasion of evil creatures, worshipers of darkness.  To protect the village, the Knights of Lyonesse have ridden hard since their victory over the goblins in the Black Mountains (here).  Will their valour be strong enough to save the townsfolk, or are they too tired to resist the forces of evil?  Read on...

In the centre, the Cabal's hordes shambled forwards as fast as they could (which wasn't very fast!).  The far wing of Knights started to move out to meet the undead cavalry, but then hesitated and ground to a halt (very poor dice rolls for PiPs).  In the centre, long-range magic was very effective at disrupting and destroying the Lyonesse infantry.  It looked as if the Cabal had chosen well in mounting their invasion near Halloween; the dark gods were favouring their dice rolls considerably!

The story was much the same on the near wing.  A combination of fast-moving sneakers and bats plus hostile magic served to break up the Knight's forces.  Meanwhile, the undead hordes advanced through the woods, obliterating everything in their path (mostly squirrels).

It looked as if the Cabal had made a slip, though.  Bertrand de Fleury saw the enemy commander-in-chief casting spells a long way from his troops.  The hero spurred his winged horse into the air, flew over the battlefield and challenged the horrible wizard to a duel.  However, the magician cast a dark web over Bertrand and his steed, ensorcelling and capturing both of them!

In the centre, the Cabal sent huge flocks of bats forwards to pester and confuse the knights.  The men destroyed most of the critters with ease, but again this caused them delays and broke their momentum.

In the swirling melee, the Red Knight came face-to-face with the undead champion.  He was still distracted by swarms of bats and this was his downfall: the boney wight wounded him and the knightly hero fell.

It was the far wing of the army of Lyonesse that was the first to flee.  The skeleton riders crunched through their terrified human counterparts.  Hampered by indecision (poor PiP rolls), the knights had little chance to react and were routed by the rampant undead.  Even some of the hordes managed to kill the knights who tried to face them, the Cabal's forces were so outrageously lucky!

Bertrand de Fleury finally managed to escape from his captivity and return to the field.  We'll never know how he managed this, for he returned just as the central command of the knights' army also became demoralised.  Bertrand took one look at the devastation and fled (and wow - Aerial Heroes can flee a long way!).

It was up to the near wing of the army of Lyonesse to attempt to regain some honour.  By now, some of their cavalry had managed to circumvent the dark wood and trickled in to attack the pair of chanting wizards who commanded the opposing forces of darkness.  The first knights to attack were fried to a crisp by a well-placed fireball from the junior magician; the senior spellcaster didn't even deign to notice the attack.

The ghosts assailed the knights' commander, confusing him with visions of his dead ancestors.  Although he managed to shake off these apparitions, he was then unable to join in the assault on the Cabal's leaders.

Finally, some of the forces of Lyonesse managed to charge the Cabal's nearest sorcerers.  Saint Florence slew the lesser magician in a fit of holy righteousness, but once again the ordinary knights who attacked the other wizard were destroyed by foul magics.

Conclusion

This last loss, combined with the destruction being wrought by the undead hordes emerging from the far side of the woods, was the final straw.  All 3 Lyonesse commands were now in full retreat, whereas the armies of darkness were barely damaged.  There must have been something in the air that night, for the knights lost pretty much every die roll that mattered, while the Cabal won theirs.  Truly the townsfolk of Valence-sur-Aignan would remember All Hallows Eve with horror!

ATZ-FFO Campaign, Game 7: Rally! (Part 2)

...continued from part 1.

Pike and Pavel were not dead, as Iain feared they might be.  Instead, they had seen the newcomer and his dog.  Figuring that the heavily-armed stranger couldn't be worse than the zombies, they ran towards him, calling for help.  Pavel sprinted like an Olympic athlete but Pike couldn't match his friend's pace and was grabbed from behind by a couple of stray zombies as he ran past.  In a panic, Pike jabbed the first zombie with his elbow; the blow connected with something vital and the zombie was killed (Pike barely outclassed the zombie in melee, 2 dice + an automatic success versus the zombie's 3 dice, but he managed to beat it by 1 point and then roll a '1' to dispatch it.  There was a lot of that happening during this game!)

Even the short delay was proving difficult for Pike, as more zombies approached him.  By this time, Bomber had walked down the street close enough to be in shotgun range.  He fired and blew 2 of the zombies from just behind Pike's shoulder; the civilian just felt a cold hand clutch at his arm before the blast tore it away.  Pike struggled frantically against the 2 remaining zombies that attacked him from behind.  Again, his sharp elbows served him in good stead as one of the attackers was killed and the other was knocked down.

Round the corner of the garage, Iain and Goofy heard the shot.  "Someone's got a gun!" exclaimed Goofy.  "Come on!  Safety in numbers!"  He dashed out and ran down the street towards the noise.  Iain, taken by surprise, was left alone briefly before he followed as fast as he could.

Back near the run-down basketball court, Bomber charged a lone zombie straggler.  He'd emptied his shotgun, but rather than take a turn to reach for his bat or to reload, he felt confident enough to take on a single zombie in hand-to-hand.  Clancy ran in beside him joyfully.  Pavel felt the need to impress this rough stranger and overcame his earlier fears; he too charged into the melee, though being 3rd behind 2 tough fighters, he might be forgiven for thinking that his presence was merely to show willing.
This zombie must have been someone like Jackie Chan or Chuck Norris in its previous life, though.  Firstly it fought Bomber to a standstill.  Next, it fended off the wolfhound with such a vicious blow that Clancy's teeth were heard to clash together; the dog dropped like a stone, stunned.  The rampage only ended when Pavel hit it from behind with his tricorder, beating it by 1 point and... (you know the rest!).

Where did they come from?

As Iain and Goofy sprinted along the road trying to catch up with the other humans, more and more zombies appeared.  Mostly they came from the far side of the police station, though stragglers were appearing from all directions.  Goofy fended off a couple of zombies that got close to him; it looked as if he would be able to break through the mob and join Bomber's group.

Goofy ran as if pursued by the devil himself after he knocked down the zombies who tried to stop him.  Iain tried to follow, but just couldn't keep up.  Perhaps his cricket pad was hampering his leg movements?
Everyone held their breath as Clancy stood up after being stunned and rolled his "Harry, are you OK?" test.  The dice came up a '6', so the big wolfhound was fine, if a little wobbly on his feet.

The mob caught up with Iain at the corner of the Motor Repair Shop.  For a moment it looked as if he wouldn't make it, but he smashed the skull of the first attacker and knocked down the second zombie.  Iain then broke free from the third creature to clutch at him and continued to flee.  Thank goodness he'd kept the cricket bat from his school days!

Bomber, Clancy and Goofy ran for the cover of the gun shop, followed by Iain.  Pavel and Pike couldn't resist a bit of looting on the way and investigated the vehicles that were parked by the side of the road.  Pavel had already found some groceries in the back of a sedan, but it was Pike who thought he'd struck the jackpot.  "Hey, someone left the keys in this motorbike!" he called to his friend.  He flicked the ignition switch; the bike engine gave an almighty, noisy cough but failed to run properly.

"You haven't got time for that!  Run!" shouted Pavel.  He could see the horde approaching faster than he imagined possible.  Pike glanced over his shoulder and started to move just as the leading zombie reached for him.

The skies were really dark now; the storm finally broke with a lightning strike (a random event).  The bolt hit a pine tree near the garages, but it didn't stop the zombies.

Another random event!  In his haste to climb into the red camper van and hide from the mob, Pavel twisted his ankle.  He grimaced with the pain as he sat for a moment in the driver's seat, before realising that the van wasn't a useful sanctuary at all.

At least Pavel was spared the sight as Pike was surrounded by a crowd of zombies.  His sharp elbows again managed to kill one of the attackers (against the odds) and knock down another - but there were just too many of them.  Pavel cowered down in the van's seat as he heard his friend's screams come to an abrupt halt.

Bomber and Clancy had run right through the gun shop and out the back door before they realised that no-one else had kept up with them.  They turned back and re-entered the building.  "Come on!" he shouted to Goofy.  "We have to go!"

Pavel used the momentary distraction while the zombies crowded round the body of his comrade to climb out the other door of the camper van.  He hobbled as quickly as he could towards the gun shop's front door and entered the building (it's just as well he didn't fail his Fast Move test, else he'd have fallen over and been stunned; sprained ankles can be dangerous!)

Meanwhile, Iain was searching the building, despite the calls from Bomber and Goofy to flee.  He encountered a single zombie on the first landing but batted it aside with practiced ease.  There was a pile of merchandise lying on the floor, so Iain grabbed something at random before retreating.  It turned out that he had picked up a telescopic sight, still in its original packaging.

A further random event occurred just as the zombie mob finished feasting on Pike's corpse.  They had seen live humans enter the armoury anyway, but they now moved towards it with a doubly renewed purpose.

Even as the zombies battered on the front door, Bomber hustled the remaining survivors out of the back door and away to safety.  At least, to somewhere else; there's nowhere safe in the city any more...

Afterword

Iain and Pavel were thoroughly shaken with the day's events.  They willingly agreed to follow Bomber and become part of his group, though they were probably not that happy when he told them how his previous group had been scattered.  Clancy was very quiet for a few hours, but soon regained his boisterous confidence.  Goofy remained taciturn and sullen, as always.

ATZ-FFO Campaign, Game 7: Rally!

Introduction

In the previous game (here), the small community at Golden Hills was scattered by a huge horde of zombies.  As this happened, a couple of members were out scavenging for supplies, unaware of the destruction of their base.

The Game

Goofy (survivor, REP4, Shotgun, knife) and Terry (survivor, REP4, unarmed) are out searching for food and weapons to take back to the Golden Hills community.  They are on a standard "scavenge" mission (though that will probably change at some point as I pull the rug from under the players' feet!).

There were 4 players present for this game; obviously we needed some extra characters beyond Terry and Goofy.  I decided that another small group of scavengers would enter from another corner.  It remained to be seen whether they would help or hinder the 'main' characters or simply ignore them.  The other group were: Iain (civilian, REP4, cricket bat), Pike & Pavel (civilian, REP3 Star Trek re-enactors, effectively unarmed):

Early Moves

To start with, Iain, Pike and Pavel ran over to the side door of the police station.  Iain tried the handle.  "It's locked!" he said, sounding surprised.
"Can we break it down?" asked Pike.
"Maybe" replied Iain, uncertain.  "But surely there must be easier ways to find some loot?"

On the other side of the road, Goofy and Terry went along the row of garages, testing each door as they went.  This was a bit cheeky as there was a zombie standing motionless in the middle of the street.  It was looking towards the police station and didn't see the two men (wrong line-of-sight and lots of poor zombie activation rolls!)  Nevertheless, Terry kept a sharp lookout whilst Goofy tried each handle.  All the units were securely locked, so they didn't find anything useful.

By this time, 2 of the 3 PEFs (Possible Enemy Forces) on the board had been resolved as just nerves, though the encounter level had been raised from a comfortable 3 to a nerve-wracking 5.  In this context, it was not too surprising when a random event occurred.  Using my event deck, it was resolved as Foresight, thus allowing the players the advance knowledge that the 3rd PEF was just litter blowing in the breeze.  Indeed, the town became very quiet and even though it was early afternoon, the streets darkened as storm clouds began to cover the sky.

The players were all feeling confident now that the PEFs had all been removed as a threat.  Iain, Pavel and Pike came round to the front of the police station, intending to walk in through the front door.  As they did this, they saw the lone zombie standing in the street.  The group conferred briefly, but decided that they had to deal with the creature before moving any further.  "Come on!  Let's get it!" called Iain as he charged forwards.  However, both Pike and Pavel failed their citizen's "brown pants" rule and stopped after a few steps.  Iain didn't even notice that he was alone as he ran up and delivered the perfect swing; with a sickening crunch he flattened the zombie.

Terry strode across the street to congratulate the stranger, though Iain was preoccupied with the sudden realisation that his buddies had bottled out; he barely acknowledged Terry's words.  Before any further arguments could occur, Goofy called out "Heads up, guys!  We're not alone!".  The zombies were finally on the move down the street and a small mob was approaching fast.

The humans started to back up the road slowly.  As he went, Goofy fired several shotgun blasts.  Even though he felled a few zombies, the noise started to attract larger numbers of them to the area.

Another random event occurred; this time it was obvious that the main door to the police station was completely impassable.  The men could only guess at what might have happened inside that building to require fortifications of that magnitude, but right now they didn't have the leisure to let their imaginations dwell on the subject.

Terry and Goofy, followed by Pike, decided to run back round the police station.  They hadn't realised that a large mob was coming up the alley from that direction and they were taken completely by surprise when the first zombie attacked them.  Terry didn't get a chance to utter a sound as one of the creatures grabbed his head and broke his neck (Eww!  Terry lost the melee by 1 point, but the zombie then rolled the '1' necessary for an 'obviously dead' result).

In shock, the remaining humans ran from the scene, whilst the zombies congregated on the warm corpse to feast.

Iain and Terry found themselves together, hiding down the side of the block of garages.  "Where are Pike and Pavel?" hissed Iain.
"Who?" replied Goofy.
"My friends...did you see what happened to them?"
Goofy didn't answer.  He wasn't much of a talker at the best of times and the sudden death of his friend had unsettled him.

Unknown to both men, just at this moment Bomber and Clancy arrived at the far end of the table (Bomber is a REP6 survivor with brawling, shotgun and baseball bat; Clancy is a REP6 Irish wolfhound).  They had come as fast as they could from Golden Hills to find Terry and Goofy.  Although Bomber didn't know that some of the residents of the retirement home had been left behind in the scramble to evacuate, he still thought it important for the scavenging party to return immediately.  He had no idea what he was walking into.

To be continued...