The sun ain’t gonna shine anymore…

Day 21

Cast: The Whiteface Family

Objective: Discover

Area: suburban Whiteville

It had been rather quiet for the last two days. It seemed there weren’t any soldiers around anymore. The Whitefaces had seen the National Guard being replaced by the US Army several days before, but even these well trained and heavily equipped soldiers weren’t able to control the situation. Mr. Whiteface didn’t believe in the rumour about a cure having been developed, so they had left Camp Camelot and tried to find a better location to hide. Now they have been walking down the Highway along those endless lines of cars since the early morning without seeing a living human being.

Setup: It’s my standard 4’ x 4’ setup. There is a big four lane highway running through sections one, four and seven. The two lanes leaving Whiteville are crowded with abandoned vehicles. Three PEFs have been placed on the board. One (Rep 1) in section five and two (Rep 1 + 2) in section two on the parking lot in front of the diner. The Whitefaces start on the highway in section seven.

The following buildings are on the board:

- a diner in section 2

- a supermarket in section 6

- an apartment block in section 8

- a small trailer park (3) in section 9

Comment: As mentioned before my PC is currently OOF. I had intended to upload some pictures of my december battlefield layout from my wife's PC, but I couldn't connect it to the camera. My second possibility was to upload some pictures from my office PC which has a card slot. It wasn't a big surprise, that these card slots are deactivated. So for this batrep you have to live without pictures. Shame, as I really liked the terrain. I hope to add some pictures for the next batrep (same layout).
Comment (Edit): I have added five pictures now.

Turn 1:

(4 / 1) All are active, the Whitefaces move first.

The family moves forward between the lines of cars and stop next to a blue Subaru.

All PEFs are active, but stay where they are.

Turn 2:

(4 / 6) Only the Whitefaces activate.

They move forward to take a look at a red Ford Mustang, taking them into LOS of the PEF in section five. It turns out to be a group of three shuffling undead.

The Whitefaces win the Encounter Awareness test with 2 successes and are allowed an In Sight test although they are active. Mr. Whiteface snap fires one shot and misses, while Mrs. Whiteface – as a trained survivor – holds her fire.

No new zeds are created.

Turn 3:

(5 / 4) Only the zombies activate. All three zeds shuffle closer.

Turn 4:

(4 / 6) The Whitefaces activate as a group, the zombies stop and stare.

Dotty watches her parents switch their assault rifles to burst fire mode and firing at the zeds. Mr. Whiteface scores two OD results on one zombie, but misses his second target. Mrs. Whiteface hits twice and scores an OD result on a zombie girl, but misses the lucky zombie mechanic too. This bugger is too damn fast!

Six shots fired create one undead lady of negotiable virtue further along the highway.

Turn 5:

(3 / 1) All are active, Whiteface family goes first.

Mr. Whiteface fires a single shot at the lady of the night, but misses. His missus fires another burst at the mechanic, hitting him twice and killing him. The zombie on the highway moves closer.

The Rep 2 PEF moves from the parking lot in section two on to the lawn in section five into LOS. It’s an equal sized (a little bit unfair because of Dotty being no real fighting character) group of hostile National Guard soldiers (Rep 4, 3 and 3). I roll minus 3 successes for the Encounter Awareness test and decide to use Mr. Whiteface’s LUCKY attribute. Minus one success. Not good.

The hostile NG roll for In Sight:

NG #1 snap fires a single shot at Mr. Whiteface, but only manages to shatter a window of the red Mustang. If he hadn’t been snap firing…

NG #2 scans the area for more targets.

NG #3 fires a burst, but misses Mr. W. due to him being in cover and Mrs. W. because she is the second target and in cover.

The Whitefaces choose a result from the Received Fire test (see, I remembered!):

Mr. Whiteface snap fires a burst (he is still a civilian) at NG #1, but misses every time. Twice because of snap firing.

Mrs. Whiteface fires a burst a NG #1, scores a result of OOF, that is turned into a result of Stunned because he’s protected.

NG #2 and NG #3 roll check for Received Fire and both score a duck back. One moves behind tree to his right, the other moves forward to hide behind an abandoned Army Humvee.

This turn isn’t over yet. The second PEF (Rep 1) from section two moves from the parking lot to the lawn in section five as well, but with a little bit of luck turns out to be a false alarm.

Oh, 14 shots fired generate seven new zombies. It’s time for a plan. A good plan!

Turn 6:

(2 / 2 / 6) All are inactive. Team Whiteface and Zeds cancel each other.

Turn 7:

(5 / 4 / 6) Only the zombies activate. Btw, the activation dice read: (Whitefaces / Zombies / Other Humans).

They move. Three charge NG #2, two charge Mr. & Mrs. Whiteface.

Mr. Whiteface decides to burst fire & melee and kills his assailant.

Mrs. Whiteface decides to do the same and knocks down her personal undead.

NG#2 checks for Being Charged and retires.

Six shots fired create zero zeds.

Turn 8:

(6 / 5 / 4) Only NG #1 is able to activate. Before you ask: as a side effect of the duck back in turn five NG #3 is out of range for group activation. Not by much, but he is. And NG #2 is retiring. So it’s only NG #1 recovering from stun this turn.

Turn 9:

(5 / 5 / 3) Only the National Guard is active.

NG #3 moves toward his team leader. Both want to fire at zombies.

NG #1 fires a burst at a mob of zeds and knocks down one zombie.

NG #3 fires a burst at a zombie waitress from the diner behind them and kills her.

NG #2 being the smart one, retires with a fast move. He jumps over the hedge onto the parking lot.

Six shots create three more zeds.

Turn 10:

(5 / 6 / 5) All are inactive.

Turn 11:

(5 / 6 / 3) Only the National Guard activates. Just in case you forgot to count: this is the 6th inactive turn in a row for the Whiteface family. I would have moved out of this death trap between the cars if I could.

But I can’t! So both National Guard soldiers continue to fire bursts at the zombie mob in front of them. They score an impressive result of six misses.

The third soldier, NG #2 leaves the table. He doesn’t notice the single zombie created on the parking lot because of six shots having been fired this turn.

Turn 12:

(5 / 6 / 5) All are inactive.

Turn 13:

(5 / 4 / 2) The horde activates first, followed by the National Guard. The Whiteface family is still frozen in terror (8th turn of inactivity).

A lot of zombies move. One charges Dotty, three charge NG #3. Two zombies move into LOS of the Whiteface family triggering an In Sight test.

Both Whitefaces fire a burst at their fresh (well, not that fresh, at least not by the smell of them) targets killing one and knocking down the other.

Dotty uses the Bleen rule from BDTZ to escape her charger.

The NG check for being charged successfully using a leader die from NG #1.

NG #1 melees a zombie and kills him with +5 successes.

NG #3 burst fires & melees: he knocks down one with a bullet a kills another in melee.

The National Guard team activates and wants to charge the small zombie mob.

NG #1 charges and kills one zombie with +4 successes in melee. This guy is evil.

NG #3 comes to the conclusion that charging may not be the best idea. He halts in place.

Nine shots fired create 6 new zeds. The current status is: 16 zombies on the board, with two of them being knocked down.

Turn 14:

(5 / 4 / 3) Zeds first, followed by National Guard. Yes, 9th turn of inactivity for the family.

The Whitefaces are being charged by three zombies. Two for Mr. W. and one for Mrs. W. Both decide to fire a burst and melee, with Mr. Whiteface killing one of his decaying opponents with a well placed bullet. The other two zombies get killed in melee.

The soldiers are charged by one zombie each. NG #1 accepts the charge and kills the zed, NG #3 decides it’s time to retire.

National Guardian #1 is still in a fighting mood. He activates, charges another zombie and kills the foul creature.

Six shots fired create two more zeds for a total of thirteen zeds on the table.

Turn 15:

(6 / 4 / 5) Guess what, only the zeds activate.

One brain eater charges Mrs. W., two charge Mr. W. and five charge NG #1.

Both Whitefaces choose to burst fire and melee and both are able to knock down one zombie. Mr. Whitefaces melees his second target for a result of evenly matched. Did I mention that he did already spend his LUCKY attribute for this scenario?

NG #1 scores no success on the Being Charged test and finally decides to strategically relocate, i.e., retire.

Six shots generate four more zombies.

Turn 16:

(3 / 4 / 1) All activate. Yes, really, after ten turns of inactivity the Whiteface will move. Make that ‘may move’, after all the zombies activate before them. The retiring troopers activate last.

One zombie charges Mrs. Whiteface, Mr. Whiteface continues his fight and NG #1 is attacked by two zombies.

NG # 1 melees both zeds and is put out of fight. Being protected this changes to a result of stunned.

Mr. Whiteface kills his opponent in melee, while Mrs. Whiteface wants to single shoot & melee her assailant. She misses, goes into close combat and runs out of luck. This ugly undead creep scored a result of OOF against the missus. Gnah!

Mr. Whiteface howls in furious rage, activates and charges his wife’s attacker.

NG #1 activates to recover from stun…right in front of a big zombie mob.

No new zeds are created, but with 15 zeds on the table there’s enough for everyone.

Turn 17:

(3 / 4 / 4) Only the Whitefaces activate. Zeds and National Guard cancel each other.

Mr. Whiteface retrieves his wounded wife and leaves the highway toward the humvee.

Turn 18:

(3 / 1 / 1) Again only Mr. Whiteface activates and everyone else is cancelled.

He carries his wife further down the small road, closely followed by little Dotty.

Turn 19:

(2 / 2 / 2) All are cancelled.

Turn 20:

(4 / 6 / 1) Mr. Whiteface activates first, followed by the retiring National Guard. This luck is desperately needed.

The Whitefaces move towards the small trailer park, out of sight of the still inactive zombie horde on the highway. Every other zombie has turned his attention on the soldiers.

NG #1 leaves the melee mob and fast moves away, following NG #3 who fast moves towards the outer corner of section three.

Turn 21:

(6 / 5 / 5) All are inactive.

Turn 22:

(4 / 4 / 4) All are cancelled.

Turn 23:

(6 / 4 / 4) All are inactive.

Turn 24:

(4 / 4 / 4) All are cancelled.

Turn 25:

(4 / 1 / 6) Whitefaces activate first, followed by the zombies.

Mr. Whiteface carries his wife over to the trailer’s door.

Some zeds follow the National Guard, some more move randomly around the table.

Turn 26:

(2 / 6 / 4) Whitefaces activate first, this time followed by the soldiers.

The family enters a trailer only to discover a female survivor (Rep 4) with a submachine gun pointed at them. Mr. Whiteface puts his wife down on the floor and stares at the armed woman. With despair in his voice he says

“Please help, my wife has been hurt…”

The stranger glances down at Mrs. Whiteface, then at little Dotty and finally back at Mr. Whiteface. With a short nod she orders them to stay with her and to close the door.

All roll on the NPC Interaction table and Mr. Whitefaces receives a positive result with +2 successes. With a final result of 8 he is able to recruit this survivor. Say hello to Lynn.

The soldiers activate and leave the table.

Comment: With no targets in LOS and me not being in the mood to leave the trailer it was time for a decision. To leave the table would take the Whitefaces about two activations, so I ruled that after two activations hiding in the trailer and without being detected by a wandering zed I would end this scenario. Some hordes would follow in the direction of the National Guards, other would leave the board in the hours to come. Still, I had to wait for this two activations.

Turn 27:

(4 / 2) All are active.

Team Whiteface hides, while the zombie shuffle around.

Turn 28:

(3 / 1) All are active again and after some more hiding and shuffling this scenario is over.

Final Comment: Wow, what a depressing game…in a good way. There was so much activity in my head cinema when this scenario ended. I just knew that the rogue National Guard soldiers had been looking for Lynn, but given the opportunity they didn’t hesitate a second to raid other survivors. What an ironic twist of fate. Eleven days before I had depended so much on the support of friendly National Guard soldiers, but these guys were pure evil. If I just had been able to retreat from my disadvantageous position. If…that’s the point I guess, “if” and zombie hunting get you Obviously Dead or at least Obviously Zed.

There is no doubt that this mission was an epic fail, but Mr. Whiteface’s Reputation stayed the same and he got promoted from a civilian to a survivor. His new team member Lynn, who is a 4 Survivor too, received the Runt attribute, because I hadn’t given her an attribute when I met her.

Concerning the fate of Mrs. Whiteface I decided to wait until the evening of Day 21. Yes, exactly, I will roll on the “Harry, are you OK?” table in the first turns of my next scenario. Everything is still possible.

Stay tuned for the next broadcast from the trailer park.

Whiteface