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.

ATZ-FFO Supplement - Hospital 911

Two Hour Wargames recently released their newest supplement for ATZ-FFO, Hospital 911. To quote the blurb on the back cover,
"Hospital 911 takes you to the first recorded encounter with an infected person in the US. In Hospital 911 you will have a variety of roles from patient, to police officers and much more. Some are good, some are bad, but all must escape the Zeds.
In Hospital 911 you'll find:
Fifteen scenarios from eight points of view.
Six unique colour floor plans.
A variety of characters to play.
New rules for the ever present News Crews.
New rules for Firemen and fighting fires.
Over forty locations to be explored.
Rules and scenarios that can be brought into your normal All Things Zombie games."
What makes this supplement different from other scenario packs are the six hospital floor plans. These are all A3-sized and are meant to be used as gaming boards in this game. Essentially, Hospital 911 is part board-game and part table top game. Your figures can move so many squares on the board as opposed to the normal x amount of inches. A word of warning, most characters, including zombies, are slow moving. SWAT Troopers, however, are incredibly fast. Zombies can move three squares. Hospital patients move 1d3 squares or not at all, depending upon what they roll. Non-patients can move four squares. SWAT Troopers are Fast, meaning they can move five squares and if they Fast Move, they roll 3d6 and count all results! (Note that a successful Fast Move roll grants the figure an extra two squares of Movement. In theory, a SWAT Trooper could move 11 squares in a turn!) The squares on the maps measure one inch by one inch or 25mm square, making them ideal for use with 28mm scale figures on their 25mm diameter bases.
Three new rules that were introduced in the new Chain Reaction 3.1 rulebook are included in this supplement. They are In Sight, No Stunned and PEFs. For In Sight tests only the leaders (or temporary leaders) of each side take the test. Whoever wins, gets to activate all of his figures In Sight of the enemy. This makes a huge difference to the game. Winning this test is now vitally important!
The No Stunned rule means that if a character receives a Stunned result he ignores it and Carries On instead. However, he still has to stand back up and this results in him losing half his Movement allowance. What I most dislike about this new rule is that it now makes Body Armour totally worthless. My solution? If a character gets wounded and they are wearing Body Armour, have them roll 2d6 vs their Rep. If they pass 2d6, the Body Armour totally protects them and they take no wound. If they pass 1d6 then reduce the wound level by one. So Obviously Dead becomes Out Of the Fight. Out Of the Fight becomes Stunned, and Stunned becomes Carry On. If the character passes 0d6 then the wound stands as is. I would also add that any roll of 6 is classed as a failure to avoid Rep:6+ characters wearing Body Armour gaining total immunity from wounds.This works in a similar manner to a Star's Star Power advantage in that it can help reduce damage but it works differently. It has more chance of success but it also helps Grunts as much as Stars. Note that it can be used in connection with the Star Power advantage. Use the Body Armour test first. Also note that in both  cases, Stunned still means being Stunned and would necessitate a Recover from Knock Down test. This is just a House Rule but it is one that I will be adopting.
For PEFs, they now all have a Rep of 4 and the way they move has changed. The PEF Resolution Table (taken against the PEF's Rep) is very much geared towards this particular setting and should not be used in normal play away from the hospital.
Moving on, we come to the scenarios. You don't have to play them all. In the order they are written they concentrate on the point of view of one character type, starting with a Civilian Patient. This is followed by a scenario in which you play a member of the hospital staff. Next, are two scenarios in which you take on the role of a  Police Officer. These escalate into a SWAT response and there are three scenarios in which you take control of a SWAT Team. Most scenarios take place on just one floor (i.e. one map) but the third SWAT scenario requires the team to clear out the whole hospital floor by floor, staring at the bottom and working up. This is unquestionably the toughest scenario in the book. Moving on, scenarios 8 and 9 introduce a news team as the heroes. In one you play a reporter and in the other, a cameraman. Next up are a series of three scenarios in which you play a Ganger. In scenarios 13 and 14 we discover how Firemen work in ATZ. Here are the rules for starting fires and how to put them out. In the 15th and final scenario you are an assassin working for the Prosperity Corporation (see the High Rise To Hell supplement for more details about this shady organisation). Your task is to assassinate a rogue Pro Corp doctor who released the zombie virus in this hospital.
At first glance the scenarios seem fairly simple (with the exception of that SWAT scenario I mentioned) but they are all challenging and different and offer a  great deal of variety. Would I play all fifteen? Probably not. One way you could use this supplement is to play the scenarios as flashbacks for party members of your own group. This would allow you to slot any scenario from this supplement seamlessly into an existing campaign.
I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this supplement and I can even forgive it for adapting a board-game feel to it in lieu of a more traditional tabletop game. Special mention must be made of the six maps, which are really good. They are printed on thick cartridge paper in full colour with a very matt finish. You could buy the PDF version of this supplement and print out your own maps but for me it was worth paying a bit extra just to get the proper maps. Plus, I much prefer "real" books to electronic books. The PDF copy of Hospital 911 costs $15.00, whilst the printed copy is $20.00. Both are available from the THW webstore. As an introduction to the zombie apocalypse presented in the world of All Things Zombie - Final Fade Out this succeeds very admirably and so I'm happy to award it a 9 out of 10 rating. For those of you on limited budgets or with little room to set up a big game board, this will be ideal. You don't need to build a big 3D hospital to play it. The maps work just fine and take up hardly any space at all.

NOTE: You still have time to enter my 500th Post free competition. See my last post for full details and prizes. The closing date is 12.00 midday on Wednesday 16th of July 2014.

My FFO Campaign - Mayhem City Massacre part 3 - Week 2

TURN 6.   Activation - Crips = 1, Police = 4, Zombies = 3, PEFs =6.

 The cops took time out from shooting zombies to check the status of the five prone gang members. It was quite apparent that four were dead but Geoff Brown noticed that one of them, Jevon Yenga, was still breathing.
"Hey, great stuff!" he exclaimed, "we've got a live one."
"We need to get him out of here and find out what happened," Carole Malia said.
"Agreed," replied Paul Muni.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth when a male zombie lunged at him with its one good arm trying to grab hold of him. It moaned loudly in response to being so close to warm flesh. Flesh that it wanted to devour.

Patrolman Muni acted on pure instinct and adrenaline. He raised his Shotgun and at almost point blank range shot the zombie in the mouth, killing him instantly.
Both sides passed 1d6 on the Charge Into Melee test (see p.30), which allowed Muni to fire once before the zombie reached him. Fortunately for him, his shot was not only accurate but also fatal as well.

A group of four zombies suddenly charged at "Stewie" Whincup. He fired his 12 Gauge Remington Pump-Action Shotgun at the closest zombie and hit him in the left thigh. The zombie crumpled to the ground and snarled back at "Stewie."
Then things went from bad to worse for the unfortunate patrolman. His Shotgun suddenly clicked on empty. "Oh shit!" he muttered. "What a time to run out of ammo!"
"Stewie" won the Charge Into Melee test by 2-1, which allowed him to fire as many shots as the target rating of his gun, which was 3. He rolled a 6 followed by double 1s. To make matters worse, when he rolled for damage (see p.27) he rolled higher than the Shotgun's Impact of 2 and so just scored a Knock Down result. The double 1s meant that his Shotgun had run out of ammo.

"Stewie" was forced to use his now useless Shotgun as a club to defend himself against three rabid zombies. At this point he totally ran out of luck. The first zombie to reach him knocked him off balance and he fell to the ground, hitting his skull on the concrete pavement. He blacked out.
The zombie beat him in Melee Combat by 2-1 and scored a  Knock Down result. "Stewie" immediately took the Recover From Knock Down test (see Police QRS) but only passed 1d6, meaning he was now Out Of the Fight.

The other zombies pounced on him and began ripping and tearing chunks of flesh from his prone body. I rolled to see how long their feasting would last (see p.48) and scored a 5. At the end of Turn 11 they would finish feasting upon him by which time he'd be long dead.

At the back of  the warehouse three zombies charged at Quadri and Michelle. The Crips Gangstas let rip with their Assault Rifles and killed all three in a hail of gunfire before the zombies could reach them. In reality, the zombies stood little chance against two Rep:5 Gangers with Shooting Skills of 5 and armed with Assault Rifles (Target Rating:3 and Impact:3). Quadri and Michelle easily won the Charge Into Melee test and were allowed to fire three times each. Their shooting was devastating. They both hit twice and between them they scored three Obviously Dead results (two for Michelle and one for Quadri).

The five zombies who had been knocked down last Turn stood back up. The others moved even closer towards the cops. In this photo above you can see the three new zombies who appeared at the end of last Turn just behind the group of six.

Slowly walking along the road from the other side of the warehouse were the second set of three newly arrived zombies. Note that I have replaced the dead zombies with corpses, just to make the board a bit tidier.

 More and more zombies were arriving on the scene in a never ending wave.

Quadri and Michelle quietly slipped out of the warehouse's back door and left the board.

I rolled 4d6 for zombie reinforcements at the front of the warehouse. Two arrived at 12 o'clock, which placed them inside the warehouse.

Then I rolled 6d6 for zombie reinforcements from the point where Quadri and Michelle had fired. Four were placed at 10 o'clock from the shooting, which put them at the back of the car park. At this point there were 36 active zombies on the board and just 3 active Police. These were pretty atrocious odds.
TURN 7.   Activation - Police = 5, Zombies = 3, PEFs = 2.
At this point the Police now replaced the Crips as the Human Player Group, but what a time for them to fail to activate! A total of 10 zombies were in Charge range of the 3 cops. Let battle commence!

Four zombies surrounded Paul Muni. He managed to fire a single shot before they reached him but in his panic he fired high and wide, hitting no one. After that he was literally fighting for his life. He managed to push one zombie, a very old white-haired male, on to its back with his Shotgun. But a second zombie grabbed hold of his Shotgun. The pair then had a grappling contest to see who could wrest it from the others hands. Neither succeeded. However, a female zombie to the left of him made a grab for Muni's legs. He fell over and screamed in agony as she tore a chunk of flesh from his left thigh. He was unable to do anything to stop the fourth zombie from pouncing on him and ripping out his throat with its teeth.

Both sides passed 1d6 on the Charge Into Melee test, which gave Muni the opportunity to fire once. He rolled badly and missed. In the first of the four Melee contests, Muni won by 3-2 but only scored a Knock Down result. In the second contest Muni drew 2-2 with the zombie. This meant they were evenly matched, which gave the following zombies a +1d6 bonus to hit him (see p.31). The third zombie beat Muni by 3-2 and knocked him down. Muni only passed 1d6 on the Recover from Knock Down test and was rendered Out Of the Fight. This left the fourth zombie with a free attack with a +2d6 modifier to hit a prone target The zombie won 3-0, which also resulted in Out Of the Fight. It was game over for Patrolman Paul Muni. I rolled 1d6 to see how long the zombies would feast on him and rolled a 4.

Patrolwoman Carole Malia was the next to fall in the line of duty. As three zombies charged at her, she totally freaked out and snap-fired her pistol without aiming. Twice she fired and twice she missed. She wrestled with a zombie whom she thought looked remarkably like Victoria Beckham, wearing a black miniskirt. This left her practically defenceless against the other two. The second zombie lunged at her waist and knocked her to the ground. As she lay, momentarily stunned, her last thought was, "please God, make it quick!" The third zombie duly obliged and sank his teeth into her exposed neck. She quickly bled to death as the zombie gulped down her warm blood as quick as it could swallow.

This Turn started badly for Carole and just went downhill from there on. She did win the Charge Into Melee test by 2-1 but her shooting was woefully bad. She missed with both shots. A Pistol does not count as an Improvised Weapon under the FFO rules (see p.29) and so she was classed as being Unarmed. This gave her already poor Melee score of 2 a further -1d6 modifier. Incredibly, against the first zombie she drew 1-1. However, this meant she was now evenly matched, which gave the next two zombies a +1d6 bonus to hit. The second zombie won the combat by 2-0 and knocked Carole down. She did remarkably well to pass 2d6 on the Recover From Knock Down test but because she was not wearing body armour she was Stunned. This gave the third zombie a +3d6 bonus to hit her (+1d6 for her being evenly matched and still in combat and +2d6 for her being prone). The zombie won the combat 4-0 and scored an Obviously Dead result on her. The feasting on Patrolwoman Carole Malia would also last for 4 Turns.

Last man standing at this point was Patrolman Geoff Brown. He went down even quicker than his two colleagues. He failed to fire at the three zombies before they reached him. He simply froze. The last thing he remembered was being knocked down and having half of his face bitten off. It hurt like hell but he quickly fell into unconciousness and never recovered.

Geoff lost the Charge Into Melee test by 1-0, which meant he could not fire at his attackers before they reached him. He then lost the first Melee contest by 2-1 and got Knocked Down. Alas, he only passed 1d6 on the Recover From Knock Down test and he went Out Of the Fight. The other two zombies began to feast upon him, a process that would last for 2 more Turns.

It was all over. The Crips had been massacred and the Police had been massacred. This left two groups of winners - the Kill Krazy Kommandos and of course, the zombies. Whoever said zombies were too easy to kill?

COMMENTS. I must admit that this was far and away the most enjoyable game of ATZ-FFO that I have ever played. Whenever I play with Team Vampifan I always want them to do well but I never fudge the dice to help them out. With this game I really did not care who won or lost. All that mattered to me was telling an interesting story. I really did think I'd blown it by the end of Turn 1. I was not expecting to see such a one-sided fight. Once the Kill Krazy Kommandos started shooting, the Crips had no chance at all. I could have stopped there but I'm mighty glad I didn't. I keep on saying this but it's true, the beauty of games like this is that they can take on a mind of their own and head off in directions you never even considered. For sure the rules aren't perfect (what game is?) but they work well enough for me and at the end of the  day, that's all that matters.
Incidentally, for those of you wondering about the fate of Crips Gangsta, Jevon Yenga, who went Out Of the Fight in Turn 1 but who recovered thanks to a Random Event card, he did escape at the end. The zombies around him were far too busy feasting on the four cops to notice him slip away. So at the end, four Crips Gangstas died, including second-in-command Frederic Blackmore. Although four did escape, gang leader Adam Obunge would face a leadership challenge from Quadri Ogunkoya.
The one thing I did learn from this scenario was just how dangerous zombies can be if they are allowed to grow in numbers. At the start of turn 7, the final turn, the zombies outnumbered the police by 36 to 3. That could only end in one way and, predictably, it did! Heed this lesson, my friends. Keep the zombie numbers down as low as possible!

My FFO Campaign - Mayhem City Massacre part 2 - Week 2

TURN 2.   Activation - Crips = 1, KKK = 3, Zombies = 5, PEFs = 1.
The zombies failed to activate this turn, which was fortunate for both gangs.

"Let's move out!" Ricardo Santana ordered. "We're done here."
There were hoots and cheers as the Kill Krazy Kommandos turned round and crossed the road to their parked car and van. Chico Rivera and Samantha Mercer reloaded their Franchi SPAS12 shotguns as they walked. I used the Really Tight Ammo rules (see p.24) to see if they reloaded their Shotguns. Each character rolled 2d6 against the Target Rating of the weapon (in this case it was 3). Chico passed 1d6 and successfully reloaded but if he got another Out Of Ammo result in this Encounter he would be left with no more ammo for the rest of the Encounter. Samantha passed 0d6 and was fully reloaded with spare ammo left.
Four gangers boarded the sedan car with Leon Hedoya driving and the other six climbed aboard the van, where Hector Lopez was the driver.

The two Stunned Crips Gangstas, Quadri Ogunkoya and Michelle Warboyes spent the turn playing dead. Neither one wanted to attract the attention of the vicious Kill Krazy Kommandos.
Finally, it was time to activate the three PEFs. PEF:1 passed 0d6 on the PEF Movement table (see p.66) and stayed where it was. PEF:3 passed 1d6 and moved 12" away from the closest player group (the Crips) and ended up in the North East corner of the board far away from everyone, where I think it remained for the rest of the game.

PEF:2 passed 2d6 and moved 12" from the garage and into the car park towards the two remaining Crips Gangstas.

 TURN 3.   Activation - Crips = 4, KKK = 3, Zombies = 2, PEFs = 6.
Quadri and Michelle stood up and headed back inside the warehouse.
"Fuck me!" Michelle swore. "We got our asses kicked there!"
"That we did, sister," Quadri replied. "Now let's get out here before any more trouble arrives."

Meanwhile, outside the Kill Krazy Kommandos were making a quick getaway. They had seen the zombies arriving and they knew that the police would soon be on the scene. They had done what they had set out to do - wipe out another African/American gang. It was time to head home.
Because the KKK arrived in both vehicles, and already had the keys with them, the car and van  started automatically (see p.39). Plus, there were no zombies within 12" of them so once again, they didn't have to take "The Car Won't Start" test. Both vehicles had a Road Movement of 16" and were able to move at half that distance (8") on this Turn. Both vehicles caused noise equivalent to six gunshots each as their engines roared into life.

Seven zombies at the side of the warehouse started shuffling towards the two passing vehicles.

The three zombies in  the car park moved to the corner of the warehouse.

The four female zombies moved onto the road in a futile attempt to chase the two departing vehicles.

I rolled two lots of 6d6 for zombie reinforcements. Three male zombies arrived at 9 o'clock from the sedan car and tagged along behind the four females.

Three more zombies arrived on the scene as they emerged from the derelict building.

TURN 4.   Activation -  Crips = 3 (5), KKK = 5, Police = 3 (6), Zombies = 2 (1), PEFs = 2 (2).
The numbers in brackets indicate who went first in both tied results. Remember, only tied activations between the player group (in this case, the Crips, and the zombies indicate a possible Random Event) (see p.13).
The Kill Krazy Kommandos sped off the board. There would be much celebrating back at their headquarters later that night.

The Police arrived just in time to miss the Kill Krazy Kommandos. It had taken three turns for them to respond to the shooting from Turn 1, which was the worst possible result. I rolled on the How Many table (see p.62) to see what kind of response would arrive. I rolled 1d6 and scored a 4, which was boosted to 5 for this Encounter being in an Urban area. This gave me four patrolmen split equally between two cars.
CAST - Police Patrolmen
Paul Muni - Rep:4 Police with Logical Attribute.
   Skills = Drive:3, Melee:4, Shoot:4, Fitness;3, People:2, Savvy:4.
   Weapons = 12g Remington Shotgun, .40 Glock 22 Big Ass Pistol.
Carole Malia - Rep:3 Police with Free Spirit Attribute.
   Skills = Drive:3, Melee:2, Shoot:3, Fitness;2, People:3, Savvy:1.
   Weapons = .40 Glock 22 Big Ass Pistol.
Stewie Whincup - Rep:4 Police with Dim Attribute
    Skills = Drive:3, Melee:4, Shoot:4, Fitness;4, People:2, Savvy:3.
   Weapons = 12g Remington Shotgun, .40 Glock 22 Big Ass Pistol.
Geoff Brown - Rep:4 Police with Poser Attribute.
    Skills = Drive:4, Melee:3, Shoot:4, Fitness;3, People:4, Savvy:2.
   Weapons = .40 Glock 22 Big Ass Pistol.
Malia and Muni were in Car 01 with Malia driving. Brown and Whincup were in Car 02 with Brown as the driver.

Quadri and Michelle decided to leg it and they sped towards the back door of the warehouse. They took the Fast Move test (see p.15) and doubled their normal Move of 8" to 16" which was reduced to 14" because they moved through one open doorway into the back room.

The zombies who had emerged from the derelict building tried to attack the first police car. Paul Muni was having none of that. He quickly rolled down his window and opened fire with his 12 Gauge Remington Pump-Action Shotgun. The first blast caught one zombie in the mouth and blew half of his head off. His second shot hit another zombie in the shoulder and knocked him flat on his back. His third shot missed completely. Muni passed 2d6 on the Charge Into Melee test (see p.30), whilst the zombies only passed 1d6, and was able to fire 3 times at the zombies before they reached him.

The third zombie, wearing a hospital gown, made a grab for the windscreen wipers. However, he lost his balance and rolled under the front of the car, where his bloated body literally exploded as it burst apart in a spectacular eruption of blood and gore.
"Oh my word!" Patrolwoman Malia exclaimed in horror as she witnessed the most horrific sight of her life. She swallowed hard and only just managed to avoid being sick.
The zombie and Malia each passed 1d6 on the Charge Into Melee test so the zombie got hit by the car (see p.43). The zombie had a Bash Value of 1, whilst the car had a Bash Value of 5. Both sides rolled d6s equal to their Bash Values, looking for successes (any rolls of 1, 2 or 3). The zombie scored 0 successes, whilst Malia scored 4 successes. Result - instant death for the zombie!

The seven zombies at the side of the warehouse continued their slow advance forward.

The three zombies from the car park now emerged in front of the warehouse and became excited by lots of movement in front of them. As one, they began moaning. They could smell fresh blood.

The seven zombies on the main road were also attracted by the approaching police cars. They too, closed  the gap between them.

PEF:2 passed 2d6 on the PEF Movement Table and moved 12" towards the nearest player group, ignoring any terrain features on the way. This placed it inside the warehouse close to Quadri and Michelle.

"Did you hear something?" Quadri asked nervously.
"Oh, shit!" Michelle exclaimed as she suddenly caught sight of movement from the dark shadows of the storeroom. "Zombies!"
I rolled 1d6 on the Contact Days 1-10 table (see p.61) and rolled a 5, which was increased to a 6 because of the +1 modifier for it being in the Evening. this gave a  result of Zombies with a -1 modifier to the How Many table. This coupled with a +1 modifier for being in an Urban area gave me a straight die roll on the How Many table (see p.62). I rolled 1d6 and scored a 4, giving a result of Player Group +1 zombies, which in this case was 3 zombies. Remember that zombies do not activate on the Turn they are generated, nor do they trigger an In Sight test.

PEF:1 passed 1d6 on the PEF Movement table and moved out of the office block, 12" away from the two Crips Gangstas. PEF:3 passed 0d6 and did not move.

I rolled 15d6 in two lots of 6d6 and one lot of 3d6 for zombie reinforcements. First three then two arrived together at 12 o'clock from where the police cars entered the board, to form a group of five zombies.

Two more zombies were generated by the sound of Patrolman Muni firing his Shotgun and they arrived at 11 o'clock from his position.

TURN 5.   Activation - Crips = 4, Police = 3, Zombies = 4, PEFs = 5.
With the Crips and the zombies rolling the same number for Activation, neither of them could activate this turn (see p.13), but there was the possibility of a Random Event (see p.59). I had rolled double 4 and because 4 was less than or equal to the original Encounter Rating of the area (ER:5) a random Event had occurred. Rather than rolling on the Random Events table on p.59, I used Colgar6/Hugh's deck of Random  Events cards to determine what the event was. I drew the Fast Recovery card. It stated that "A random character who is  Out Of Fight may attempt an extra Recovery Test immediately, even if he/she has no friend adjacent or if the character has previously failed such a test." There was only one OOF character on the board, Crips Gangsta Jevon Yenga. He passed 2d6 on the After the Battle Recovery Test (see p.34) and he would return to his gang. I was unsure if this meant now or after the Encounter was over. I decided to just leave him be for the moment. If nothing else happened to him he would escape after the Encounter was over.

The two police cars rolled to a stop in front of the warehouse. All four cops got out of the cars and began shooting zombies. The zombies  were getting too close for comfort and they had a crime scene to investigate. Paul Muni cranked his Shotgun and fired three times at the three zombies shuffling towards him from the corner of the warehouse. His first shot hit the fat zombie wearing the striped jumper full in the face and turned his head to mulch. His second shot hit the grey-haired zombie in the chest and knocked him down. It was not a fatal blow.  His third shot went far too high and missed the one-armed zombie lagging behind.

Patrolwoman Carole Malia unholstered her .40 Glock 22 Big Ass Pistol and she opened fire at the two female zombies leading the group of seven zeds just over the road from her. Her first shot was remarkably accurate. It hit the zombie wearing the purple dress in the centre of her forehead, killing her instantly. Her second shot was not as accurate, even though it did score a hit. It slammed into the woman's ample bosom and knocked her flat on her back.

"Stewie" Whincup faced a trio of female zombies as he stepped out of his car. He repeatedly fired his Pump-Action Shotgun at the group with only partial success. The zombie businesswoman in the smart suit took a hit to the right eye, which blew half her head off. However, his next shot only grazed the woman wearing a lemon T-shirt and pale grey miniskirt in the head. She went down but was not dead. His third shot missed entirely as it flew too high because he failed to compensate for recoil.

Geoff Brown decided to lend his partner a hand by firing his Glock 22 at the third female zombie of the trio, a middle-aged woman in casual clothing. "Fantastic!" he cried as he shot her in the stomach, and watched her fall on her back. His second shot went wide.

I rolled  22d6 for zombie reinforcements in two lots of 6d6 for the noise generated by the two police cars and two lots of 5d6 for the firing from the two sets of cops. Two zombies appeared at 3 o'clock from one car at the eastern edge of the board. Yes, one of them is wearing a Sponge Bob Square Pants T-shirt! How cool is that?

Two more appeared next to the pair standing by the skip. Not photographed (sorry!) were three at 8 o'clock from Malia and Muni and three more at 3 o'clock from Brown and Whincup.

TO BE CONTINUED

COMMENTS. It all draws to a close next time. Will Quadri, Michelle and not forgetting Jevon, escape? Will the four cops survive? Or will the zombies emerge triumphant for once? Tune in on Sunday and find out.