Vampifan's Views 54 - Monthly Musings 32

Vampirella in peril by Mike Mayhew

I have lots of news to report for this month. First up, I'd just like to thank everyone who took part in my 500th Post competition and once again, congratulations to the three winners, all of whom who have received their prizes. A few of you have suggested I should run more competitions and I certainly hope to do so.

On Sunday 27th of July, the Zombicide season 3 Kickstarter project drew to a close with a whopping huge $2.85 million finally pledged. My starting pledge of $150 for the Patient Zero offer ballooned to $415 (roughly £240) by the close, thanks to many of the optional stretch goals I wanted.. Stuff like season 2 re-offers, dice, tiles and plastic counters did not interest me. But any new figures did. And Guillotine Games really pushed the boat out with them. Fortunately, none of the new stuff will be shipped out until next year, which gives me plenty of time to paint loads more zombies. I'm currently painting the last of the season 2 survivors and Zombivors (6 of each). Then I'll move on to the zombies and do as many as I can before boredom and fatigue sets in. I plan on doing lots of conversions (like my Laurel and Hardy zombies) as I don't like the idea of having loads of zombies looking exactly the same apart from a paint job. On the plus side, I have LOTS of ideas for conversions. On the minus side, it'll take extra time to convert them.

Bryan aka Vampifan, getting ready to play ATZ with Joe and Mathyoo

One of the things I hate the most about being a solo gamer is that I miss the interaction and chat with other gamers. Happily, that all changed last week when I spent two glorious days playing ATZ-FFO with not one, but two fellow gamers and bloggers - Joe and Mathyoo. Mathyoo flew over to England from Slovenia to spend 10 days with Joe and me. He spent 5 days with each of us.

Joe aka Zabadak taking notes before playing ATZ His gaming room is awesome!

Mathyoo or Matevz, struggling with his camera. Take the lens cap off first!

For me, the highlight of his stay was the two days spent at Joe's house. Joe will be posting batreps of both scenarios on his own blog and I don't want to steal his thunder. I was designated official photographer, a role I was more than happy to do. My camera was much better than Joe's and Mathyoo's.

Before we began I was able to take these two shots of Joe and Mathyoo, which I thought I'd share with you as I'm sure they won't want to. It seems they're both camera shy, which explains why they were taken unawares! Mathyoo took the photo of me on my camera. Joe has all the photos I took safely stored on his computer.

We had a great time and without giving anything away, I was well satisfied with the outcome of both games. Joe had us both playing civilian characters based on ourselves. No, I wasn't Vampifan or Scotty Bryant, just some guy called Scott Briand. Mathyoo's character was called Mattias Groschen. This was the first time I had been to Joe's house. We had met up in Newcastle city centre on a few other occasions. Now that I know where he lives, I'm sure we'll be meeting up for even more games. It would be such a shame not to seeing as we only live a few miles apart.

The newest Vampirella #1 cover by Terry Dodson

The only downside to Mathyoo's visit was that we never found the time to play any games of Zombicide. No matter. The two days spent playing ATZ at Joe's more than made up for it.

After a brief absence, the Vampirella monthly comic is now back on sale. So what, you might ask? Well 2014 sees the 45th anniversary of Vampirella's first appearance and there is much planned for her this year. This makes me feel quite ecstatic. So I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish my favourite vampire a very happy birthday. Long may you reign, Vampirella!

Finally, I have to go to hospital on Friday to have an operation to remove a cataract in my left eye. I'll be in and out within two hours but if you don't hear from me during the week it'll be because I'm still recovering. I'll try to resume blogging as soon as I can. Take care.