Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Last Stand

Day One - Location #8, Part II

Welcome back. It took me some time to finish this report. Here is the second half of my last batrep I shot the sheriff. The Whiteface Family has just left the board, but two policemen are still fighting against the horde. I'll call them Inspector Harry Houlihan and Inspector Anvil Smith. Both are Rep 5, carry a BA Pistol and will not suffer any undead punks messing around.

Turn 13: (Seven!) Four more Zombies appear. Both cops are active and fire at the zombies. Houlihan hits twice with one target being knocked down and the other one being killed. Inspector Smith kills another zombie.
The zombies are active too and closing in. One zed in charging distance of Smith recovers from knock down while Houlihan is charged by a crawler. With one success on the being charged test he isn’t able to fire but will melee.
*krunch!* The zed is killed with 3+ successes.
As a result of the shots fired there is one undead girl coming from the diner.
Turn 14: All are active and the zeds go first. One zombie recovers from knock down, 8 move closer and 5 zombies charge. Three go for Harry Houlihan and the other two for Anvil Smith.
Houlihan passes the being charged test with two successes and fires his .44 magnum…to discover that Lady Luck is an evil #%$*§. His gun is empty. Now he is in a big melee against three zeds…
*whack-thud-kerrunch!* ...and kills all of them. I am the law, creep...and don't you forget it!

Smith passes the being charged with just one success, but manages to kill both zeds in melee.

When active inspector Houlihan moves backwards and reloads his gun. Smith moves around cab toward Houlihan, fires two shots killing one zombie. One zed appears due to shooting.
Turn 15: Only the cops are active. Harry will fire, Anvil moves closer to his partner and fires too. Each cop kills one zombie, but one new zombie is generated from the shooting.
Turn 16: (Seven!) All are active, the policemen act first and four new zombies are placed on the board. Both cops fire and kill a total of two zombies. No new zeds are attracted due to shooting. The ten remaining zombies shuffle closer.

Turn 17: Only the cops are active and continue to fire at the undead, but only Houlihan is able to OD a single target…which generates one new zed out of sight in the watchtower behind them.

Turn 18: Only the zombies are active in this turn. The new zed exits the tower, all other move closer. It’s 2 vs. 10.
Turn 19: (Seven!) Oh, look, new zombies! All are active and the zombies move first. A zombified hobo crawls through the bushes at the wall, a cheap and dead looking girl appears in the trailer park and a horrifying zombie with a meat cleaver walks out of the diner. Each cop is charged by three zombies and three more zombies are close enough to attack next turn.
Deguello!
Inspector Houlihan has one success on the being charged test and enters close combat with three zeds. One zombie is killed, but Harry is OOF as well. Not good, just when you think these guys may have a future in the post-apocalyptic world.

Inspector Smith passes with two successes and fires two shots at the charging zombies. A girl zed is OD and the waitress zombie is knocked down (charging!), so Smith will have to melee just the guy in the chicken suit. He ODs the chicken with +3 successes. The Colonel here!

Smith activates and fires two shots at the remaining horde. He barely manages to knock down another zombie. On the bright side no zeds are generated by shooting this turn.

Turn 20: All are active and the inspector moves first. He fires two shots, but even though he kills another zed he isn’t able to save his partner. Maybe he should have shot him…
All zombies go feasting or move closer to the feast (4 rounds, Turn 20 – 23). Anvil Smith watches the feast, but with 2 successes he will carry on giving the law to the undead mob.

Turn 21: All are active, but Anvil acts first. He moves away from the zeds and fires two shots which just knock down one target, but fortunately don’t generate any new zombies. Most zombies are feasting, some are still on their way to the party. Currently there are one cop and ten zeds on the board.

Turn 22: All are active, but this time with the zombies moving first. Seven zombies are feasting and two are still moving towards the feast. Inspector Smith fires his BA Pistol. He kills two targets, but attracts a new zombie boy from the trailer park.

Turn 23: It’s the last round of the feast and all are active. After the zeds move almost every zed on the board has joined the feast. Only the boy from the trailer park has missed the dinner by 2”. Anvil Smith wishes for a grenade but has to content himself with shooting at the zed pile. He kills two more zombies without generating more. Good work.
Yum! Yum!
Turn 24: The feast is over, but the zombies are not satisfied yet. All are active and the zombies act first. All zeds move toward the cop, but none of them is in charging distance. He answers by firing twice, but doesn’t hit anything. At least no new zeds are generated.

Turn 25: Only Smith is active this turn. He fires two rounds at the undead and kills one of them. Unfortunately one new zombie is created as a result of the shooting.

Turn 26: All act, but the cop goes first. His shots kill one zed, but generate a zombified girl behind the mob. All zeds move closer.

Turn 27: All are active, but Smith – being a Rep 5 – acts first. He fires two shots and moves backwards. This seems to be a slow, but successful effective method. Two zeds are killed, none are generated. It’s only 1 cop versus 4 now.

Turn 28: (Seven!) Oh, drokk it! All are active, but Smith still acts quicker than the zombies. A single zombie joins the horde. The experienced policeman continues with his move and fire strategy. He kills two targets, but creates another zed in turn. The zeds move closer.

Turn 29: Only inspector Smith is active. He is fed up with attracting more zombies with gunshots. The zombies are spread across the board, so he decides attack them in melee. He will have to fight just one at a time, with 5 vs. 1 melee dice. Sounds like a solid plan.
 He passes two successes on the wanting to charge test and enters melee with his first target. The dice roll:
*errgh!* 5 vs. 1 and again...
*aarrrf!* 3 vs. 1 and again...
*gnuuh!* 2 vs. 1 and again... 
*Aiiiieeeh!* with a final result of 0 vs. 1.
I cannot believe it, but inspector Anvil Smith is OOF!


Final comment: As a result of this massacre (including the last batrep) there are 3 dead cops and 35 dead zombies. I didn’t expect this result in turn 29. The whole scenario dragged on and on with zeds being annihilated and generated all the time and finally everything was over after a quick melee. Strange things happen in zombietown! Oh, and if the Whitefaces would have stayed on the board they would have been active 8 turns out of 17, generated terrified civilians twice and would have increased the amount of zombies generated as a result of rolling a seven! (four times). Furthermore I guess that Mr. Whiteface would have fired a total of 16 shots from his BA Pistol hitting probably nothing but attracting more zeds. Yes, I think that leaving the board was the right decision.

Whiteface

5 comments:

  1. Great Bat-Rep as always.

    Look forward to next time and Mr and Mrs Whiteface's continuing saga.

    Tec

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  2. I'm glad you posted this, Oliver, and I hope you learnt from it. Aren't you just so glad the Whitefaces left when they did? I loved your final comments and assessment of what would have probably happened if they had stayed. Brutally honest, to be sure, but I reckon you were right.

    This batrep (very well written, by the way) perfectly illustrates why zombies are such scary opponents. Yes. they are easy to kill and fairly easy to defeat in melee combat if you go one on one (just don't get too cocky!) but the big advantage zombies have is that they are relentless. They just keep on coming and they never give in. Weight of numbers is what killed the two cops. You could argue bad dice rolls killed them but I don't buy that. There were just far too many zombies for them to kill. Knowing when to run is the key to survival in ATZ.

    I LOVE this game! I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next in your campaign. I'm also interested to see what rules you decide to use from "I, Zombie," if indeed you use any. I played two scenarios last weekend and used far more new rules than I originally intended. PEFs are great and add a whole new dimension to the game.

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  3. I've said it before, and I'll say it again..
    Melee is for chumps!
    It don't matter how favorable the odds appear, it is always a dangerous proposition at best.

    Great batrep, it was very exciting. I'm looking forward to the next adventures of the Whitefaces!

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  4. Ha ! what a batrep..... I never would have thought that it would have ended that way, just like in the movies, you kill one and more appear, its just as well you dont run out of ammo or have to reload your weap, good read, thanks for posting.

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  5. Hello all, thank you for your kind comments on this batrep.
    The best part was Turn 14. Inspector Houlihan is out of ammo, charged by three zeds and kills all of them. After this performance I really thought he would return later as the leader of an NPC settlement. Well, won't happen.

    The Whitefaces have already started the first scenario after Day One last week, but I wasn't able to continue this week. I will be away from the gaming table until mid of next week. I am looking forward to continue the game especially because there is a real cliffhanger situation to be resolved. It's a good thing that I don't have to put anything away for the breaks. Oh, on a side note I just received my scenemaster street accessories. More props for Whiteville.

    I didn't run out of zombie miniatures, but I was running out of status markers because I wanted to leave them on the table. I had to take the zeds off the board because I was starting to get confused by all those corpses lying and walking around.

    And while the zombies are feasting you can hear a lonely trumpet playing a mournful mexican melody...

    Whiteface / Oliver

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