My ATZ Campaign - Day 35 - Going Hog Wild part 1

Twelve days after Vampifan had recruited three new survivors and found a base to settle down, he led five of his team on a mission to forage supplies. These are the stats of those who took part in this mission -
Vampifan; Rep:6 Star; Nerves of Steel and Slow, armed with Assault Rifle, BA Pistol and Armour.
Big Sil; Rep:5 Grunt; Knifeman, armed with Assault Rifle, BA Pistol, Knife and Armour.
Angie Johannson; Rep:5 Grunt; Runt armed with Assault Rifle, Knife and Armour.
Hannah Vaughn; Rep:4 Grunt, Stone Cold armed with BA Pistol and Knife.
Jamie Vaughn; Rep:3 Grunt, Brawler armed with Pistol.
Billy Vaughn; Rep:3 Grunt, Wuss armed with Catapult.
The seventh member of the team, Gap, stayed behind to guard their home and he took no part in this encounter.
HOUSE RULE From now on I shall be using Oliver/Whiteface's house rule on when Ragers, Smarties and Psykers may appear. Very basically, at the start of each scenario you roll 1d6. On a roll of 6 Ragers appear as per the rules of the I, Zombie supplement. Otherwise, play on as normal. Smarties and Psykers can only appear after the arrival of Ragers. The full rules  can be found on Oliver's blog site here http://obviouslyzed.blogspot.com/2011/05/house-rule-lazarus-timeline.html I rolled a 2 on the d6 so no Ragers would appear in this scenario.

 

The game was played on a 3' by 3' board divided into nine equally-sized sectors. Sector 1 was at the bottom left of the board, where the billboard was located, whilst sector 9 was at the top right of the board on the tile that contained two small groups of fir trees.

Do you notice something different about this set up? Yep, it's the vehicles. I normally use my cardstock vehicles in my ATZ scenarios, but this time, I thought that I'd give some of my die-cast vehicles an airing. I don't have many, so don't expect to see them appearing a lot. Incidentally, the truck and trailer came with a sleek black helicopter, which will definitely make an appearance in a future scenario.

Team Vampifan arrived on foot in sector 9, having left their vehicles a short distance away in a secluded spot. Before the game began I rolled for lack of sleep for each character. Hannah slept for just 5 hours on the previous night and only passed 1d6 vs. her Rep on the Lack of Sleep Table. This meant that she would suffer a -1 penalty for this encounter only, making her Rep:3, the same as her kids. No-one else was adversely affected.

Next, I rolled for placements and Reps of the three PEFs.
PEF:1 was Rep:3 and was placed in sector 6 at the side of the garage and out of sight of team Vampifan.

PEF:2 was Rep:2 and was placed in sector 1 at the corner of the small Folding Structure Unit.

PEF:3 was also Rep:3 and was placed in sector 5, next to the silver car parked in the garage entrance. (Note the name on the side of the van and you can see why I just had to buy it!) .

Day 35 - Going Hog Wild part 1
This was day 35 of the campaign and it took place in a suburban area of Mayhem City during the hours of daylight. This was a straightforward Discover scenario. Note that any reference to the basic rulebook will use the abbreviation BDTZ, whilst references to the I, Zombie supplement will be abbreviated to IZ.

TURN 1.   Activation - Vampifan = 6, PEFs = 1  
Vampifan led his team to the back door of the red-brick garage. Vampifan, Big Sil and Angie had their Assault Rifles at the ready. Hannah held her BA Pistol by her side. Jamie had stuffed her little Pistol down the side of her pants but Billy held tightly to his Catapult as he looked round for zombies.

I rolled for all three PEFs. PEF:1 passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement Table and so moved in sight of Team Vampifan. I had to determine what it was before I could roll for the other two PEFs. I rolled a 5 on the PEF Resolution Table to give a result of Hostile Encounter. I rolled to see if they were human or zombie (50/50 chance of each) and scored in favour of the zeds. Next, I rolled to see how many there were and got a reult of one more than the heroes, i.e. 7. Each side took the Encounter Awareness Test, which Vampifan won easily, allowing his side to take an In Sight Test but with 3d6 instead of 2d6, counting the best two results. The four adults passed 2d6 each and could fire at the zombies. The two kids only passed 1d6, so they could snapfire. I decided it wasn't worth them bothering.

Vampifan opened fire first with a three round burst. He hit twice and scored two deaths. Big Sil did exactly the same, hitting twice out of three and killing both times. Angie wasn't as lucky. She fired three rounds as well, but only hit once. However, she too scored a kill. Remember the Easy To Hit rule (see p.34 of BDTZ), which makes killing zombies so much easier as you roll against your Rep instead of the gun's Impact to kill them. Hannah just fired once but her aim was way off target. This is what happens if you don't get a good night's sleep!

PEF:2 passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved one sector diagonally to sector 5, taking cover at the side of the white van.
PEF:3 passed 0d6 and so remained where it was.

I rolled 10d6 for zombie reinforcements and scored four successes. Two appeared in the middle of the road by the front of the garage...

...and the other two appeared at either side of the flat-bed trailer.

TURN 2.   Activation - Vampifan = 4, PEFs = 5, Zombies = 2
The PEF roll was too high for them to activate. Vampifan took one step towards the back door of the garage and paused to fire a three round burst at the two zombies left standing from last turn. He hit them both and killed them with expertly placed head shots. Then he entered the garage. Big Sil and Angie also paused at the back door to fire single shots at the two newly arrived zombies by the flatbed trailer. They, too, put down their targets with some fine shooting. Hannah and her family followed and also entered the garage.

This, of course, warranted me using my Risks and Rewards cards. The top card that I turned over showed that the building was occupied by three zombies and that a Food Resource could be found there. I rolled on the Meeting Zombies Table to determine the Surprise scores. The zombies collectively scored 6, Vampifan scored 11, Big Sil scored 7 and Angie scored 10.  Team Vampifan were allowed to fire before melee combat was initiated.

They each chose to fire once and all three hit and killed their targets despite the Easy To Hit rule no longer applying. You must roll against the gun's Impact rating if charged by a zombie. Incredibly all three managed it - Big Sil scored an Obviously Dead result, whilst Vampifan and Angie scored Out Of the Fight (OOF) results, which count as Obviously Dead against zombies. Hannah found the Food Resource.

After the smoke had cleared I noticed that Team Vampifan had a clear Line Of Sight to PEF:3 at the side of the silver Ferrari 575M Maranello parked in the garage entrance. Rolling on the PEF Resolution Table I scored a result of NPC Interaction. I determined that the NPCs were also Survivors and that they numbered the same as Team Vampifan.
The leader of the new group was called Carver Hale, a Rep:5 Star with the Stone Cold and Axeman (a version of  Knifeman) Attributes. He was armed with a one-handed Axe and a Shotgun. He and Vampifan had to roll on the NPC Interaction Table (see p.117 of IZ) to see if they were friendly, neutral or hostile. Both leaders ended up scoring the same amount of successes (i.e. none) so they exchanged small talk and agreed to co-exist peacefully.
Hale's team consisted of Sister Saw, Rep:5 and armed with a BA Pistol and a Chainsaw; Zack Norris, Rep:4 armed with BA Pistol, Knife and Gas Mask, Sergio Garcia, Rep:4 armed with a Shotgun and Pistol, Denzel Stephenson, Rep:4 armed with twin Pistols and a metal Baseball Bat and finally, Joelle Wexler, Rep:4 armed with a BA Pistol and a Knife. How sweet it would have been if they had teamed up with Team Vampifan on a permanent basis. But it was not to be.

 The two remaining zombies moved closer to the garage entrance. I rolled 8d6 for zombie reinforcements and scored two successes. One emerged from the burnt down building across the road from the garage. He is only just visible in the bottom left corner in the photo above.

The second zombie emerged from the woods in sector 9.

 TURN 3.   Activation - Vampifan = 2, Hale = 5, PEF = 6, Zombies = 3
The PEF had rolled too high to activate, so Carver Hale led his team outside. He charged the little girl zombie in the yellow dress. Being a Star, he automatically passed the Wanting To Charge Test and he smote the girl's head from her body with a mighty swing of his axe. Joelle also passed her Wanting To Charge Test and she used her lethal combat knife to decapitate her zombie opponent. As Team Hale moved further out of the garage they were able to draw Line Of Sight wityh PEF:2, lurking at the side of the white Ford Transit van. I was hoping this would be a false alrm when I rolled on the PEF Resolution Table, but it was another Hostile Encounter. This time the hostiles were human and they numbered half as many again as the heroes, in other words, nine. I should have rolled to see who they were but I didn't because I had a definite plan in mind for who they should be - a biker gang mounted on motorcycles! I've been wanting to try them out for quite a while now, having discussed such a meeting with some of my blog followers in previous posts.

This particular gang were called the Wild Hogs and were led by Boss Hawg, a Rep:5 Ganger and Star with the Transporter Attribute. He was armed with a Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW) and he rode the chopper bike in the middle of the front row of the gang. He was accompanied by three Rep:4 gangers on chopper bikes, armed as the figures were (Semi-Automatic Rifle, Sub-Machine Gun and Pistol), a Rep:5 Hard Case riding a normal bike in the middle of the back row, armed with a Shotgun. The rest of the gang, four of them, were Rep:3 Punks on normal bikes armed wirh either SMGs or Pistols.
Their backstory was that they had recently had an unsuccessful run-in with Carver Hale and his crew, which resulted in the Wild Hogs suffering heavy losses. One of their gang tracked Team Hale to this location and reported back to Boss Hawg with the news. He ordered those bikers still fit to travel to join him in gaining retribution. As they approached this particular suburb of Mayhem City, Boss Hawg ordered his gang to switch off their engines so that they could silently sneak up on Team Hale. It was only a short distance for them to freewheel their bikes to the small building across the street from the garage. It was from there that they waited to ambush Carver Hale. Now it was time for bloody vengeance!

Both leaders had to take the Encounter Awareness Test (see p.117 of IZ) with Hale suffering a -1 penalty to his Rep for being active. Both men scored two successes, meaning the inactive side, the Wild Hogs, could take an In Sight Test with 2d6. Boss Hawg and the two Rep:4 bikers either side of him passed 2d6 and could fire normally. From there it went downhill. the third Rep:4 biker (armed with the SA Rifle) passed 0d6 and couldn't fire. The Rep:5 biker with the Shotgun only passed 1d6, as did three of the four Rep:3 bikers and they had to snapfire. The last Rep:3 biker (with the mohican haircut and armed with a Pistol) also passed 0d6 so he'd take no part in this ambush. The biggest gun battle of my campaign, so far, was about to begin - 9 bikers against 12 Survivors with the bikers going first.
Boss Hawg let rip with his SAW, firing all four shots at Carver Hale. His dice rolls were 5, 3, 1 and 1, indicating a hit, a miss and run out of ammo. Oh, dear! His hit managed to knock Hale Out Of the Fight. I immediately rolled for Team Hale on the Leader Lost Table and they passed 2d6. They could carry on as normal and they swiftly elected Sister Saw their new leader. After all, she did have the highest Rep of those remaining.
The biker to the left of Boss Hawg fired his SMG at Joelle Wexler. Only one of his three shots hit and that merely caused a Knockdown result. Joelle rolled on the Recover From Knockdown Table and passed 2d6. She was just Stunned.
The Johnny Reb biker to the right of Boss Hawg fired his Pistol twice at Sister Saw and missed with both shots. She should have taken a Received Fire Test but I totally forgot about it as I was so caught up in the moment. Oops, slapped wrist for me!
The Rep:5 biker armed with the Shotgun also fired at Sister Saw but he fared very badly. Out of 6d6, he rolled four 1s and his other two shots were misses. So, he was well and truly out of ammo. With a roll that bad, I determined that his Shotgun was jammed and unusable for the rest of this encounter.
Because they were snapfiring, the three Rep:4 bikers left had no chance of hitting anyone as they'd need a 10 to hit and the best they could roll was a 9. However, all was not lost. The Pitiful Shot rule (see p.9 of BDTZ) gave them some hope. Any roll of 6 allowed the firer to roll against his Rep and if successful the shot hits. As it was, it made no difference. None of them hit. On the bright side, none of them ran out of ammo for their SMGs!

Team Hale had survived the ambush remarkably well. Now it was their turn to open fire. Remember they were still active and the four still standing had not fired this turn. Sister Saw drew her huge .50 Magnum Pistol and fired twice at the biker who'd shot Joelle. Both shots hit. One caused a Knockdown result but the other was an Obviously Dead result.
Standing next to Sister Saw was Zack Norris, an ex-US Marine. He was also armed with a BA Pistol and he fired twice at Boss Hawg. He hit once but only scored a Knockdown on the biker leader. Boss Hawg passed 2d6 on the Recover From Knockdown Test and was stunned. This temporary loss of leader necessitated the gang to take the Leader Lost Test. They passed 1d6, meaning that they had to Halt and choose a new leader when next active.
At the other side of the silver Ferrari were Sergio Garcia and Denzel Stephenson. Sergio fired his Shotgun at the Johnny Reb biker to the right of Boss Hawg. He hit three times, scoring a Knockdown and two OOF results.
Denzel drew one of his twin pistols and fired once at the fourth biker on a chopper bike, situated right in the middle of the biker gang. He hit but only scored a Knockdown result. However, the Wild Hog only passed 1d6 on the Recover From Knockdown Test and thus went OOF.
Clearly, Team Hale had fared far better than the Wild Hogs.

Now it was the turn of the zombies to move. The female teenage zombie moved out of the woods.

The male zombie from the burned down building charged at the biker on the amber coloured bike. The biker only passed 1d6 on the Being Charged Test and was not allowed to fire at the zombie. He'd have to engage it in melee.

On the first round of combat both sides scored one success and so had to fight on. In the second round, the biker scored one success but the zombie scored none. Scratch one zombie as it crumpled to the ground with its skull bashed in.

At last it was the turn of Team Vampifan to activate. They all Fast Moved out of the back door of the garage and sprinted to the side of the white van, keeping out of sight of the biker gang. I expected Vampifan to be bringing up the rear because of his Slow Attribute but he rolled well on 1d6 and he outpaced young Billy.

 All that was left to do this turn was to roll for zombie reinforcements. I totted up all the shots fired this turn and it came to 35. With great trepidation I rolled 35d6 and scored 14 successes, an above aversge result. Nine appeared as shown in the photo above with three of them at the rear of the Wild Hogs within charge distance.

Another four appeared behind Team Vampifan. Were they in charge range as well? One clearly wasn't (the female zombie in the black dress) but I'll keep you in suspense about the other three! Yes, I am a sod!!!

The 14th zombie shuffled out of the woods in sector 9 and wasn't too far behind the female teenager zombie. On the next turn, winning the Activation roll would be absolutely crucial. One thing can be guaranteed - there's going to be a lot more blood spilled before the day is over.

TO BE CONTINUED