Zombie RV, First Playthrough - "A Cabin in the Woods"

 It has been a hell of a week here at Casa De Adcock, with an emergency trip to the veterinary hospital on Tuesday for my cat Poppy overwhelming my brain and my ability to do anything painting- or game-related for several days. Poppy is home and doing well and it's time to burn off some of this nervous energy with a game. 

Time to take Zombie RV for a test-spin. I used Mike Demana's unofficial campaign supplement to give my survivors a bit more differentiation as well. Recognizing that I had everything exactly called for, terrain-wise, I laid things out for the second scenario in the rulebook, "Cabin in the Woods." Our survivors are paying a visit to Uncle Bob's survivalist cabin in the woods to see how he's holding up and maybe see if he's got some spare gear for them.

Left to Right: Mark, Hector (in back, with rifle), Dave, and Sandra

 There were four search tokens (the cabin itself, the port-a-john, the broken-down car and the boat) and two zombie spawn points, in the northwest and southeast corners. Our crew cautiously fanned out, no zombies in sight, and began to make their approach, with Dave reaching the broken-down car, though not having time to search it before the zombies began to wander in.

 Dave pulled an old bug-out bag from the car and started sneaking towards the boat to see if there was anything to find there. Mark opened the door to the port-a-john and closed it just as quick. "What died in there?" He asked. 

 Things started to go to hell when Hector kicked in the cabin's door, finding four zombies milling around - including Uncle Bob.

 The four zombies converged, but managed to do little more than get in each other's way, with Hector managing to wriggle out of any sort of meaningful injury from this encounter. Instead, he managed to drive his knife deep into Uncle Bob's forehead and make a run for it.

 Mark started swinging at the zombies shambling his way, while Dave came up empty with the rowboat.

 As the zombies began to shamble out of the cabin in pursuit of Hector, Sandra started shooting them as they appeared in the doorway. 

 Unfortunately, as more and more zombies converged on the scene, she was overwhelmed.

 Dave fired a shotgun blast into a cluster of zombies, as Hector signaled for the survivors to retreat towards the RV. He looked glumly at the cabin; he'd seen the floor safe but the zombie swarm was swelling by the minute and he didn't expect they'd survive opening it. Meanwhile, Sandra rose as a Nasty Zombie and quickly shambled towards him. 

 Dave ducked and rolled into the cabin, opening the safe and pulling another bug-out bag from inside. With both bags over his shoulders he stepped out on to the porch. There were a LOT of zombies between him and the RV.

 The RV engine roared to life. Mark was behind the wheel with Hector riding "shotgun." The mechanic floored it, splattering five zombies including the risen Sandra beneath its wheels, stopping in front of the cabin long enough for Dave to jump in before high-tailing it out of there.

 

***

 My big takeaway from this game is I need to get more zombies painted. I had every painted zombie I've got on the table towards the end and had to stop rolling for reinforcements because I had nothing left to reinforce with! 

It's a game that does exactly what it sets out to do - it's a beer and pretzels zombie apocalypse game, your crew rolls in, tries to find what they can before the zombies overwhelm them, and get out. With the rulebook being 10 pages (four of which are scenarios), there's plenty of room to customize as well; I 100% winged it on "running zombies down with the RV" at the end of the game there. I also fudged a bit on zombie movement - rules as written it seems if there isn't a survivor making noise within 9" the zombies just stand still, and that left a corridor that the survivors could move in without the zombies noticing them at all. On a 2'x2' board, I was fine letting the zombies hear any major noise on the table and moving in that direction. 

It played out fairly quickly - I think about an hour, maybe hour and a half at the most? - and I feel like I got the mechanics down fast. It definitely held some surprises for me - At the end of turn 1 I was feeling pretty confident, by turn 4 I was looking at 4-5 zombies shambling towards each survivor. 

Making a note here, before I forget, that rolling on the loot table, the survivors came up with Extra Ammo and food (Supplies), so while they're sad to lose Sandra, they can continue on their journey.  

Last Two Zombicide: Invader Monsters Complete!

Having finished flocking the bases this morning, I can count these last two "Zombicide: Invader" monsters complete and ready to see action in games of Majestic 13 - indeed, one of them's destined to appear in the next game! 

First up, the "Widowmaker Abomination," a spidery thing with long, spiky legs. It's meant to sit on a clear acrylic post, but the gent who sold it to me couldn't find the base to go with it. 

 Not the end of the world! I wound up cutting off the back legs, drilling the legs and body, and using bent pieces of paperclip to reattach the legs at a different angle, allowing it to stand stably without the post and to tilt it back slightly, raising the head and front set of limbs into a more active position. 

 A little greenstuff to cover the gaps where the legs re-met the body and the fill the peg-hole in the belly and it was ready for priming.

 I kept the paint job simple - prime white, go over with GW "Nighthaunt Gloom" contrast paint, then a heavy drybrush of Reaper "Aircraft Gray." The spikes on the back and the two tentacles at the end of the body were given a little bit of a green glaze to break up the gray. 

 All in all, I'm really pleased with how this one turned out, with the repositioned legs working great - it stands just fine even without the base, all four feet on the ground, which to me is a sign of a job well done. 

The second figure didn't need any conversion; this is the "Shadow Abomination" and it reminds me very much of the "Aliens" action figures I had as a kid in the early 1990s, loosely based on the 1986 James Cameron film. Most of the Xenomorph figures in that line were molded in colored metallic plastic or black and given a heavy drybrush of colored metallics. I decided to follow that look here.

 Over black primer, I drybrushed the figure originally with Reaper "Gunmetal Blue," and when that wasn't quite what I was looking for, went over the entire figure with TurboDork "Let Them Eat Cake," a colorshift paint that varies from dark blue to plum based on the angle the light's hitting it at. I only gave it a single coat so the colorshift isn't too apparent, but it definitely yielded a deeper metallic blue color that I like a lot.

 The tubes connecting to the throat were given a base coat of Reaper "Dungeon Slime," followed by a wash of GW "Biel-Tan Green," highlighted back up with "Dungeon Slime" and finally glazed with GW "Waywatcher Green." The tongues are Vallejo "Warlock Purple" washed with GW "Druchii Violet."

 I think after this I only have 3-4 more monsters to paint for Majestic 13, which is a pretty good feeling! 

While I was at it, I finished a pair of Northstar Robots, originally released for the game Rogue Stars, to use as Destroyer Drones in future "Special" Missions against the aliens who are dropping these monsters off on Earth.

 These were dead simple - spray black, heavy silver drybrush, then going over the panels with contrast paint for a colored metallic look; on the left uses GW "Baal Red" and the right uses Army Painter "Magic Blue" speed paint. I think the blue worked out a lot better than the red but no complaints about either one of them. Picking out the eyes on Vallejo Scorpion Green completed the look. 

So that's four more for the completed side of the tracker, things are looking good...except a buddy of mine found a stash of old Wargames Factory plastic zombies to give to me. Once I receive those from him the red side will be jumping...

 

Miniatures Acquired: 184

Miniatures Painted: 168

Terrain Acquired: 2

Terrain Painted: 7

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 10

 

Here Come the Zombies

 The first 20 Zombies are finished, which means hopefully I can get a game of Zombie RV in sooner rather than later!

 This first batch are 50/50 Copplestone Castings and Recreational Conflict figures. I like that there's themed groupings within the Recreational Conflict line - this batch has four zombies in paper hospital gowns, a zombie doctor and two zombie nurses - one in scrubs and a hairnet, right up front, and one in the little white uniform who's not super visible in the group shot. 

So let's break this group down into smaller groups, shall we?

First up are the Copplestone "Zombie Troopers." This was a fun batch, and I kept their clothing uniform - Army Painter "Woodland Camo" pants, Reaper "Desert Stone" shirts, washed with Army Painter "Strong Tone" and highlighted with the base color. The body armor was Reaper "Midnight Blue," washed with "Strong Tone," then highlighted with "Twilight Blue."

 Next, the Copplestone "Plague Zombies":

 I appreciate that two of them are in their underwear. 

Next up, the Recreational Conflict zombies - Doctor, nurses, and four patients in paper hospital gowns:

 And yes:

 And finally, for now, another three Recreational Conflict sculpts I grabbed from my primed pile:

 The one on the left is a surfer, I just still need to paint and affix the remnants of his surfboard, which appears to have been bitten in half by a shark.

 What's next? I've got another 14 Recreational Conflict sculpts to work my way through. But first...

I have to update another line on the tracker as well - Atomic Laser Cut Designs sent me a complimentary copy of one of their kits! They rolled out a new retail store kit and I'd commented positively on it on their Facebook page, as well as provided some free promotion on my own page. Next thing I knew, a copy of the kit showed up in my mailbox - just hours after I'd ordered a copy! Now I've got two; in keeping with the run-down, seedy and a bit low-life vibes I've gone for with my terrain, they're going to be a liquor store and an adult bookstore. I'm already working on the liquor store, and here's a sneak peek:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 184

Miniatures Painted: 164

Terrain Acquired: 2

Terrain Painted: 7

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 10

 

Majestic 13: Operation Nightmare Fuel

 The final round of "debriefing" - interrogation, really - had barely concluded when the Lieutenant's burner phone chirped. He stared dumbfounded at the message.

"They've already got a mission lined up for us," he said incredulously. 

"Are you kidding me?" Becky whined. "I haven't even washed the antiseptic spray off me after the fourth round of 'checking me for alien implants' and they want me back in the field? My skincare regimen's totally shot!"

"What are they sending us out after?" Hank said quietly, an intense look in his eyes.

"Gzurn Shadow," the Lieutenant replied slowly. "Nasty bastards, nearly totally invisible at night. They'll blind you without even noticing you. Rumor has it these things'll eat an entire M13 squad and the only evidence it was ever there is that it leaves no trace of its presence behind."

He laughed hollowly. 

"They want us to collect tissue samples while we're at it."

"You know what this is?" Maria snapped. "This is workplace retaliation. Someone call HR."

"Whatever," Sarah-Jane said, her voice neutral and empty. "Let's kill the lousy thing and get it over with. Don't give the higher ups any more reasons to suspect us of anything."

*** 

The fireworks stand I got from Black Site Studio feels like a mandate to play a game on the July 4th weekend and have it on the table, so I set up my next game of Majestic 13. Fittingly, I rolled up a monster that looked challenging and a fairly nasty result on the mission bureaucracy table - "Amongst the Enemy," which meant the monster would be deploying after my team and within 6" of two of them. And to top it all off, I got a FUBAR result at the beginning of the first turn - "Civilians" were on the table! 

 

The Gzurn Shadow slithered out of the darkness beneath the billboard, and leapt across the alley to tackle Maria, its dark tentacles flailing and striking her blind. Striking again for good measure, it vanished into the night, reappearing in an alley across the street.

 Hank leapt across the divide from the shoe store to the TeeVee Shak, and sprayed the alley with gunfire - and missed! Maria struggled and failed to clear her blindness, feeling her way down the ladder from the roof of the pizza place and towards the street. Becky and Sarah-Jane both fired on the Shadow with minimal success. 

 With a howl, the Shadow hurled itself up on to the TeeVee Shak roof, engulfing Hank in its tentacles and blinding him.

 The Lieutenant closed in, taking a running leap from the roof of the OTB parlor on to a passing truck, before firing at the creature and missing; it retaliated with an area of effect ability, forcing the entire team to save versus blindness and damage, with the Lieutenant failing. 

 So right at this moment, three out of five agents are blind...

Maria managed to shake hers off, and raced down the street in the direction the creature was heading; Becky followed the monster as it squirted on to the roof of the Urgent Care. 

 It wasn't long, however, before the creature was on the move again. While the Lieutenant couldn't shake his blindness, Hank did and ran towards the creature's latest hiding place.

 The Shadow came boiling out at him, hitting him and unleashing its area of affect ability, blinding him and Maria.

 And the creature was off again.

 It was quickly making a nuisance of itself, as the Lieutenant continued to struggle to clear his vision. Hank and Maria cleared theirs, but couldn't find the creature.

"We're here tonight with a visiting alien monster..."

"Hey girl, you see something tall and twice as ugly as shit run by here?"

The team began to have a lot of trouble putting eyes on the Shadow, with it disappearing between buildings and blending into the shadows. Once spotted, it let loose with its area of effect, blinding Becky as she collected a tissue sample from the fireworks stand.

 The team managed to put enough hurt on it, chipping away bit by bit, that the Shadow went into Extremis, becoming far more aggressive and dangerous - and putting Maria and Hank out of action!

 At the end of the fifth turn, it all came down to Sarah-Jane. As long as she successfully hit the creature with her sniper rifle and didn't roll minimum damage, she'd kill the Shadow. 

 

She lined up the shot, and... 

 

Oh, no. The Gzurn Shadow limped off to menace another day as the Last Liners withdrew to salvage what little OPSEC they could.  

***

"Oh dear, Lieutenant, this is disappointing. But perhaps we allowed ourselves to get our hopes up too far over your past successes? After all, one's luck does run out, sooner or later, doesn't it?" The blond man pursed his lips and tapped his pen against the blotter on his desk.

"We're lucky we got off as easy as we did," the Lieutenant growled. "By all rights that should have been a meat-grinder. The damned monster was in our DZ waiting for us!"

"Yes, it is... interesting, isn't it, that you managed to escape with so little lasting harm done to your team? Other teams have, as you know, disappeared entirely when confronted with a Gzurn Shadow. And yet your team, save for Maria, escaped with only superficial injuries. Some might find that fact suspicious, Lieutenant."

"Where is Maria?" The Lieutenant demanded brusquely. 

"There were some unusual readings on her EEG. She's being held for further study for the time being; once we clear up those little discrepancies on the print-out she'll be free to go."

*** 

Well, that could have gone better, though to be fair when I saw the "Amongst the Enemy" bureaucracy result I was expecting much worse! Did I kill the monster? No. Did I complete the secondary objective? Also no. Rolling a "1" on the last shot of the game, which could have made all the difference, smarts some, for sure. 

Hank recovered from his injuries without issue, while Maria has a "Questionable Injury" and is going to miss the next game.  

Only the Lieutenant, Sarah-Jane and Becky had enough XP, between what they'd banked previously and what they earned this game, to trade in for ability score increases. The Lieutenant boosted Dexterity again, while Sarah-Jane and Becky raised their Acuity by one. 

I tried again to requisition a targeting HUD and got denied, and tried to requisition power armor for Hank now that I've got access to Phase 2 gear, and that also got denied. But I do have a drone control pod for the base now, which gives me opportunities to spot and call in drone strikes on monsters that I don't have direct LOS to, which is nice.  

So what's next for the Last Liners? Next mission's taking them out into the wilderness again...