Wednesday 27 February 2013

Vampifan's Views 35 - Monthly Musings 19

Vampirella by Mike Deodato. Snakes don't bother her!
February has been a very busy month for me, especially with all of the card modelling I have done. I have been churning out new ground tiles to use in my ATZ-FFO campaign from Stoelzel's Undeveloped Real Estate set, which I told you about in my last Monthly Musings. I am going to do a full review of what I have made so far in the next couple of weeks. Suffice to say, I am very happy with my new ground tiles and I can't wait to use them in a batrep. Carl's new ground tiles are the best on the market and I highly recommend them.
Speaking of bat-reps, you will be pleased to hear that I will be continuing my ATZ-FFO campaign in March as Team Vampifan ventures out on its first foray into the suburb of Springvale since the outbreak began. Vampifan will be leading Angie, Big Sil and Gap for the first time in my new campaign. Expect a batrep around about the middle of the month.
In other news, Ryan, who was one of the very first followers of my blog, kindly informed me that there was a copy of the Zombicide board-game going for sale on e-Bay for just £60.00 and that all of the figures were painted. Seeing as the seller resided in the UK, I placed the first bid. I never expected to win the auction even though it still had one day to run. Sure enough, I didn't. Five other bidders popped up and it eventually sold for £85.00, which was way too much for me. To be honest, I wasn't bothered at losing out for two reasons. First up, the figures were not well painted and I'd have had to do a lot of work on them to bring them up to my standard.
At last I have a copy. It's been a long wait.
Secondly, Ryan also told me that Amazon UK were selling it. They were asking £68.99 for it, which I didn't think was too bad. They had a lot in stock so I placed an order last Friday and three days later, it arrived. Zombicide is a game that I have wanted to own ever since I first saw it promoted on Kickstarter last year. I deliberately held off from making a pledge for it as I didn't want to get hammered by the thieving bastards at the UK's Customs and Excises. I've been ripped off by them before and it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, knowing you have to pay up. So I have bided my time until a UK retailer turned up. Thank you, Amazon! So I now have a brand new copy and I have another 71 figures (65 zombies and 6 survivors) to add to my unpainted plastic figures mountain. They are very nicely sculpted and seeing as they are made of hard plastic, they will paint up very well. What I most like about the game is that it caters for the solo gamer. Yay! Hopefully, I'll be able to find the time to play a few games this month, just to get the hang of the rules. Mind you, having read the rulebook, it does seem very easy to play. If you want to see what some of the zombies look like painted up check out Lord Siwoc's blog Brains and Guts here - http://lordsiwoc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/zombies-dumpster-diving-and-good-deal.html Johnny, I'll be copying your colour schemes for some of my zombies!
Earlier this month, I bought the 16 new supermarket zombies from Grekwood Miniatures, along with a pack of 25 deciduous trees. I have decided that I want more trees in my zombie campaign and more variety of trees. So Carl at Grekwood can expect more orders for trees from me, as he carries a nice variety of them and they are reasonably priced. Having used some of my old Games Workshop trees (now withdrawn from sale - why am I not surprised?!) in previous bat-reps I found that the biggest problem with using them was that they fell over far too easily. I got round this by using Blu-tac on their bases but this was a solution I was never happy with as there was always a risk that the Blu-tac would tear the ground tile when I tried to remove it. In fact, this happened on a few occasions. The Grekwood trees are on even smaller bases than the GW ones. My new solution is to stick them permanently to circular bases. To this end, I ordered a selection of varying diameter MDF bases from East Riding Miniatures. These range from 30mm to 80mm diameter. Next month I will glue all of my trees to these bases. I am hoping the large bases will prevent the trees from falling over if I even cough on them! Well, it'll make a change from painting miniature figures.
It looks like March is going to be a busy month for me!

24 comments:

  1. Zombiecide available on Amazon.... I need some overtime and quick!!!

    I see no reason that the bases for trees would not work, variations of this are gone at my club.

    I shall continue to ponder your musings for another week or so, maybe longer!

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    1. Three cheers for Amazon, I say!

      Thanks for the vote of confidence on the tree bases. that reassures me.

      Ponder all you like, my friend.

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  2. I'm excited to see what happens in this next month!
    I always enjoy your monthly musings. Zombicide has gotten some love here locally, so I'm definitely curious to see your thoughts on it.

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    1. I guess the thing that will interest most people will be my next batrep. I have to say, I am really looking forward to playing FFO again.

      I will indeed let you know what I think of Zombicide. It is something else I am looking forward to playing.

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  3. Good to know Zombicide is available on Amazon, not sure about getting it myself as I am only interested in the figures really, which I don't think can be bought seperately, so I'm very interested to hear your views on it. Looking forward to the forthcoming bat rep and those new ground tiles!

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    1. Sadly, the figures aren't available separately. I am just as interested in the game as I am in the figures so it was a good deal for me.

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  4. Good, very good.
    I have the game and i make this boardgame in 15mm !

    http://figurwar.blogspot.fr/search/label/Zombicide

    But it s in french. Sorry for my english

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    1. Very inspiring work to convert the game to 15mm. You have done a great job there, FreDerf

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  5. Looking forward to seeing what card fu you've been upto and the batrep as well will be certainly a treat. I might be tempted to get zombicide but i've just put in a pledge on the EotD Kickstarter.

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    1. I understand the problem, Simon. There is only so much we can buy. I really like the look of EotD and I've no doubt that if I was part of a gaming group we'd all be playing it. But as a solo gamer I am holding back. Well, at least for now!

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    2. Have you seen the vehicle wip's they are excellent. Sadly I'll have to get them at full price when they come out but the look rather nice.

      http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/832150598/empire-of-the-dead-requiem-0/posts/414827

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    3. So tempting, Simon, so tempting!

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  6. Glad to see you found a good solution to your Ebay pitfall, and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the game. I've regretted not getting in that particular Kickstarter, but, like Simon there will have to wait to fix my mistake as I am also pledged to the EotD KS.

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    1. Do you know that I have never won an auction on e-Bay. But, it didn't bother me as things turned out well in the end. My willpower at resisting EotD is quite strong but dammit, I wish West Wind would stop bringing out so much nice stuff for the game.

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  7. I've relegated my email purchases to either hard-to-find (which often makes things prohibitively expensive) or so-many-out-there-it's-cheap.

    The Zombicide website has lots of extras as far as FAQs, extra scenarios, and even blank character cards. So Team Vampifan could wander in...

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    1. I'll have to check out the Zombicide website, although for now, all I want to do is learn how to play with the basic set. Hmm, introducing Team Vampifan to the mix? An interesting idea, Russ!

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  8. Getting ripped off by customs seems to be an unfortunate fact of life at this point. Glad you were able to avoid them while getting your hands on Zombiecide. The miniatures are really cool. Hopefully the solo play is enjoyable as well, though I imagine it will be hard pressed to stick up to ATZ.

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    1. I see Zombicide as a minor diversion, Adam. I can't see anything replacing ATZ as my zombie game of choice.

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  9. I have to try to get a copy of zombiecide, it sounds like a fun play. Im looking forward to the new batrap and the tiles review.

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    1. Knowing that you're such a big fan of Stoelzel's Structures, I'm not surprised that you want to see what I've done with his URE set. Fortunately, you won't have long to wait.

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  10. You've been keeping very busy and it sounds like you're not going to be letting up in the near future.

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    1. I have been busy and March is going to get even busier, Joe. I wouldn't want it any other way!

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  11. I have been using CDs for the bases of my trees - typically 3-5 Woodland Scenics plastic trees per CD.

    Most of these CDs read America Online, since I could get them for free....

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    1. That's a good tip for little clumps of trees. I shall certainly bear it in mind.

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