My ATZ Campaign - Day 43 - SWAT Gets Spooked part 1

Just over a week had passed since Team Vampifan's encounter with the Wild Hogs' biker gang and the Team Hale survivors. Vampifan led a team of four companions out on a new Discovery mission, with Food Resources topping their list of priorities. These are the stats of those who took part in this mission -
Vampifan; Rep:6 Star, Nerves of Steel and Slow, armed with an Assault Rifle, BA Pistol, Knife and Body Armour.
Gap; Rep:5 Grunt, No Attribute and armed with an Assault Rifle, Knife and Body Armour.
Hannah Vaughn; Rep:4 Grunt, Stone Cold, armed with a BA Pistol and Knife.
Jamie Vaughn; Rep:3 Grunt, Brawler armed with a Pistol.
Billy Vaughn; Rep:3 Grunt, Wuss armed with a Catapult.
Big Sil and Angie stayed behind to guard their base and took no part in this mission. 
HOUSE RULE I am still 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 4 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, with sector 1 being at the top left of the photo with the single clump of trees in it. Sector 9 was at the bottom right of the board and contained my newly made deli and dry cleaner's building.

Team Vampifan started the game in sector 7, just next to the bus shelter. They were headed to the deli and dry cleaner's and to be fair, I could have placed them outside it quite legitimately. However, I decided to dice which of the three sectors (7, 8 or 9) they'd start in and it turned out to be sector 7.

 I rolled for the placement of the three PEFs, along with their Reps.
PEF:1 was Rep:1 and was placed in sector 6, behind the large Folding Structure Unit (FSU).

 PEF:2 was Rep:3 and was placed in the centre of Sector 4, in the open and in sight of Team Vampifan.

PEF:3 was Rep:2 and was placed in sector 2 to the side of the red van.

As PEF: 2 was in sight of Team Vampifan it had to be resolved before play could begin properly. However, before that I had to determine if any of Team Vampifan were affected by Lack of Sleep. Fortunately, none of them were. They'd all slept well prior to setting out on this mission. So, I rolled on the PEF Resolution Table to see what this PEF was. I got a result of Encounter. I rolled 2d6 on the Random Road Encounter table found on p.56 of the Better Dead Than Zed rulebook and scored a 7, indicating hostile Gangers. There were four of them, three were Rep:4 and armed with BA Pistols. The other one was just Rep:3 and he carried a Pistol. If you don't recognise the figures they are my Poor Little Rich Kids sculpted by me and based on a design by Monolith figures. Monolith make them in 40mm scale.

Vampifan won the Encounter Awareness test by one and his team could take an Insight Test, using 2d6. Vampifan and Gap passed 2d6 and could fire normally at the threat. The Vaughn family only passed 1d6 and if they fired they'd have to snapfire. It wasn't necessary, as Vampifan fired a three round burst at the gangers. He hit two and put them Out Of the Fight (OOF). A good start! The other two Gangers took the Leader Lost test and passed 0d6. Oops! They had to retire but seeing as they'd lost half their gang and were heavily outgunned I decided that their best bet was to leg it off the board whilst they could.

Day 43 - SWAT Gets Spooked part 1
This Discovery mission took place in the suburbs of Mayhem City during the hours of daylight. Note that any reference to the basic rulebook will use the abbreviation BDTZ, whilst references to the I, Zombie supplement will use the abbreviation IZ.

TURN 1.   Activation - Vampifan = 5, PEFs = 2
Vampifan decided to leave the two wounded gangers where they were. They no longer posed a threat. He led his team at a cautious walk across the road toward the dry cleaning store. He planned on searching all five buildings in turn as he moved northwards up the main street, starting with the dry cleaner's and ending with the small FSU.
I rolled 2d6 on the PEF Movement Table for the remaining two PEFs. PEF:3 passed 0d6 and remained in place. However, PEF:1 passed 1d6 and moved into sector 5, in cover behind the overturned green camper van, but in sight of Team Vampifan.

The dice rolls indicated this was a Hostile encounter, consisting of six zombies. Seeing as zombies can never claim cover bonuses, I placed them in the open. Vampifan easily won the Encounter Awareness Test and he and his team were allowed to take the In Sight test using 3d6 instead of the normal 2d6. All five of them passed 2d6, which turned out to be unfortunate as they had to hold their fire if the zombies were more than 6" away. They were about 8" to 9" away.

All that was left to do this turn was to roll 3d6 for zombie reinforcements for the three shots Vampifan had fired at the gangers prior to the turn starting. I scored one success and a female zombie moved onto the board close by the two wounded gangers, obviously attracted by the smell of their blood spilling out of them.

TURN 2.   Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 3, PEF = 6

The female zombie who had arrived at the end of last turn moved next to one of the OOF gangers and greedily began to feast on his warm flesh. This would keep her occupied for five turns.

The other six zombies advanced on Team Vampifan but with a movement rate of 6" they obviously could not reach them this turn.

This time Team Vampifan were allowed to fire when they activated and they gave the zombies hell! Vampifan opened the score with a three round burst that hit two zeds and killed them easily. With the Easy to Hit rule if Vampifan hits a zombie he is guaranteed a kill because by rolling 1d6 against his Rep of 6 he can never fail. Gap did equally well, hitting twice out of his three shots and scoring two more kills. Hannah fired her .44 Magnum twice. She hit once and blew the head off zombie number five. Finally Jamie fired her Pistol once. She rolled a 6 to hit followed by a 1 to wound - the perfect kill! All six zombies were wiped out.

The last PEF failed to activate this turn so I rolled 9d6 for zombie reinforcements. I scored  three successes. One, a little girl, emerged from the front door of the large FSU, another female zombie appeared close to the OOF gangers and the third, a nude female, arrived via the wood in sector 7. Note in the photo above that I have forgotten to remove Vampifan's three-shot bullet counter from next to the bus shelter. Ooops! It should have gone at the end of Turn 1.

 TURN 3.   Activation - Vampifan = 2, Zombies = 1, PEF = 4

PEF:3 still couldn't activate. Team Vampifan moved closer to the entrance of the Magic Clean! Dry Cleaning store.

The second female zombie who had turned up close to the second OOF ganger made a beeline for him and began to rip the flesh from his prone body. Her feasting would last for two turns. The other two zombies shuffled ever closer to Team Vampifan but were still too far away to be a threat. There were no zombie reinforcements to roll for this turn.

TURN 4.   Activation - Vampifan = 3, Zombies = 5, PEF = 6

The PEF and the zombies could not activate this turn so Team Vampifan entered the dry cleaning store. I shuffled my deck of Risks and Rewards cards and turned over the top card to reveal one zombie and a Food Resource.

Vampifan beat the zombie on the Surprise roll off and placed a single bullet in the forehead of the female teenager zombie. I rolled to see who the lucky person was who found the Food resource and it was young Jamie. I rolled 1d6 for zombie reinforcements but none turned up.

TURN 5.   Activation - Vampifan = 6, Zombies = 1, PEF = 2

Team Vampifan moved back outside with Billy and Jamie taking point duty. Billy waited until he was just 2" away from the little girl zombie before firing his catapult at her. He managed to score a hit but only knocked her down. As a consequence the last PEF became visible. I rolled to see what it was but it turned out to be a false alarm.

The nude zombie from the woods moved onto the main road. The other two zombies continued to feast on the gangers. There were no zombie reinforcements to roll for because Billy's catapult was a silent weapon.

TO BE CONTINUED