Vampifan's Views 43 - Monthly Musings 24

Vampirella by Dorian Cleavanger

Phew, what a busy month this has been! I have lots of good news to spread, so I'll start with my hobby news. In my last post I reviewed the four new survivors from the revamped Zombie Plague game. Earlier this month, I received nine 28mm scale zombies to use in the game. They're waiting to get assembled and painted.
However, these were eclipsed a week later when I finally received my huge Zombicide 2 parcel. It arrived a week before my birthday which was great timing. So what did I get? The Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall supplements took up the bulk of the order. In addition I got a set of 9 new gaming tiles, 2 packs of 20 zombie dogs, 2 packs of 6 hero dogs, 9 new survivors and 9 zombivors (heroic zombies), a pack of 31 assorted zombies, 2 packs of 6 dice and a pack of 10 markers. Christmas had come early. I've read the new rulebooks and they offer a lot of new options that will help keep the game fresh, interesting and entertaining. By the way, Prison Outbreak contains 6 survivors, 6 zombivors and 78 berserker zombies (immune to ranged fire). Toxic City Mall contains 4 survivors, 10 zombivors and 29 toxic zombies (they explode when killed, spraying everyone in the same zone as them with poisonous toxins). All told, I make that 234 new figures to paint. Gulp! Incidentally, this was not everything that I ordered. There are more figures to arrive next year. Double gulp!!
I received a very nice and unexpected surprise from Richard Brooks at Recreational Conflict. He sent me three packs of brand new 28mm scale figures. A while back I reviewed his combination civilian/survivor figures. These consisted of 8 unarmed civilians and the same 8 figures but armed to use as survivors. I praised them very highly at the time and I mentioned that it would be so cool if Richard brought out zombie and corpse versions of them. He listened and to my utter joy that was what was in two of the new figure packs. Richard, sir, you are a hero! As if that wasn't good enough, he also sent me the new Hazmat troopers he's been working on, which complement his first set. It's at times like this that I love being a blogger of all things undead.
For a long time now I have been eyeing the figures made by Crooked Dice Games. I finally bowed to pressure and made a couple of orders to them. My first order consisted of 3 Doctor Who minis (Matt Smith, Amy Pond and Captain Jack Harkness), 7 agents and sidekicks and Misty the zombie killer. They have all just come off my painting table. The second set, about to get painted, contained 5 more Doctor Who companions and 7 St. Searle's schoolgirls. I'll definitely be placing more orders with CDG.
I have finally got to grips with my new computer and, touch wood, it is working just as I want it to. I now have a 2TB hard drive, which should be more than enough memory for my needs. I also have a 1TB external hard drive, which I use as a back up for my work. Windows 8 took a bit of getting used to but I think I've mastered it now.
Finally, I leave you with some very sad news. I received news from Ed at Two Hours Wargames that his ATZ poster girl, Carolee Gee, had died of a terminal disease. It is always sad to hear of the death of anyone loved by the gaming community, but when that person was so young and so beautiful it just makes it harder to take. My deepest condolences go to Ed and to Carolee's family and friends. I have no doubt that God will have a place reserved for her in Heaven. She will be missed.