My ATZ Campiagn - Day 9 - Riot!

Having spent a day and a half holed up somewhere safe, (the floor beneath the top floor of a multi-storey car park) Vampifan decided it was time to move further away from the centre of Mayhem City and into the suburbs. With the damage he'd done to the Mayhem City Police Department's vehicle pool, he did not want to risk a run in with the cops. The National Guard were making more of an appearance but Vampifan thought it was too late for them to make a difference. It was clear that the zombies were winnining the war. Indeed, Mayhem City was starting to resemble a war zone. Shortly after leaving their safe zone on the morning of Day 9, Vampifan pulled into a petrol station to refuel his pick-up truck. Incredibly, it was still manned and it had petrol for sale. Just after he'd finished refueling he called his friends, Big Sil and Gap, to come and join him, as he stood by a portaloo, looking up the street. 
"We could be in trouble, guys," he exclaimed, as he pointed towards a mob of people marching towards him. "I definitely don't like the look of them!" he mused, as he clicked the safety off his semi-automatic rifle.

This scenario is based on the National Guard Riot scenario from the ATZ:Haven supplement and not the far easier Police Riot scenario that is also portrayed in the book. I wanted a decent challenge for Team Vampifan.

Here is the mob, shown in the photo above. This is an Aggressive Mob (Rep:4) made up of 40 Civilians. You can have fun trying to identify the figures but be warned, quite a few are ones that I made myself. It comprises Chavs (can you spot my Vicky Pollard of Little Britain fame?), Goths, Punks and Skinheads - a real friendly bunch!

I rolled 1d3 (the rules say to roll 1/2d6 but I actually have a few d3s in my collection of dice) to see how many Agitators would be in the group. I got lucky and rolled a 1. The Mob was made up of 16 Rep:3 Protestors, 22 Rep:4 Rioters and 2 Rep:5 Rioters. Of the 16 Rep:3 Protestors, 5 were unarmed, 9 had improvised weapons, which would count as Impact 1 in melee, and 2 were armed with Pistols. Of the 22 Rep:4 Rioters, 12 were unarmed, 7 had improvised weapons similar to the Protestors, 2 had Pistols and 1 had a BA Pistol. Of the 2 Rep:5 Rioters, 1 had an improvised weapon, similar to the Protestors and 1 had a Pistol. That gave the Mob a total of 6 ranged weapons. Those with a ranged weapon were placed in the front rank of the Mob. The Mob was lined up in four ranks of ten.

DAY 9 - RIOT!

This scenario took place during daytime in an urban area of Mayhem City. The Mob was placed 6" in at the northern end of the board. Their objective was to exit the board at the opposite end. Vampifan's objective was to stop them. Sure, he could have run away as soon as he saw them, but where would the fun in that be? So Team Vampifan took the place of the National Guard in this scenario. Initially, there were no zombies placed on the board but they would be attracted by gunfire and loud noises.

I have been asked by one of my followers to give a detailed description of how ranged combat works in ATZ. I am only too happy to do so. I'll do the same for melee combat as well. All page number references in the batrep refer to the ATZ:BDTZ rulebook unless otherwise stated.

The photo above shows the board I played on. It measured 3' by 3'. The ground tiles are from the WWG Streets of Legend TLX set. Most of the buildings are ones you've seen before from my collection of WWG Mayhem City sets. However, there is one building that is new and surprisingly enough it is not a WWG model. In the top right hand corner is a black temple that I made from the Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 Basilica Administratum and Sanctum Imperialis plastic model kits. This is not a ruin, it is a fully intact building. I decided to use it as it perfectly filled a 12" by 12" gap I had left on my board. I'll run a review of it soon, so that you can see it in all its glory.

TURN 1.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 6, Mob = 4

Vampifan, Big Sil and Gap could only stare in horror as they saw the crowd of angry citizens marching towards them. With a score of 6 they were unable to activate this turn.

The first thing I had to do was roll 2d6 to test for the Mob's movement (see p.15 of ATZ:Haven). I rolled a 4 and a 5 against the Mob's Rep of 4, meaning they passed 1d6. This was good news for Team Vampifan as it meant the Mob had to halt and fire its ranged weapons. Seeing as they were only firing Pistols or a BA Pistol, they were all well out of range of Vampifan and his friends. However, I still rolled for them to see if any of them ran out of ammo. None did.

With six people firing two shots each that gave me 12d6 to roll for zombie reinforcements. As this was an urban area, new zombies would appear on a d6 roll of 4, 5 or 6. I rolled 6 successes and 6 failures. In the photo above, you can see three zombies have appeared in front of the Mob and one behind them. There are two that you can't see in the alley between the temple and the apartment to the right.

Finally, I had to roll to determine the Rep of the Mob for the next turn. You start with 3d6 but this can be modified by circumstances. The only modifier that applied here was a +1d6 bonus for having a functioning Agitator in the Mob. I scored 2 successes, meaning the Mob's Rep remained the same.

TURN 2.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 4 (3), Mob = 4 (2), Zombies = 1

Despite Vampifan and the Mob rolling double 4 for Activation, no special event occured. That would only happen if double 1 or double 6 were rolled for Activation (see p.52).

With a range of 48" for his Semi-Automatic Rifle, Vampifan knew he could hit anyone in the Mob. He fired two shots at the Rioter with the BA Pistol and rolled a 6 and a 4, which were added to his Rep score of 4 to give him totals of 10 and 8. The Target Rating of the weapon determines how many shots you can fire. When shooting you always take the highest dice as your first shot and work down the numbers. The 10 was an obvious hit but the 8 missed because this was against a second or higher target. (This is all explained on p.18.) Next, I rolled 1d6 to determine what damage the shot caused. With a roll of 1 the Rioter was Obviously Dead (again, see p.18). I then rolled 1d6 to see if he was the Agitator (see p.13 of ATZ:Haven). On a score of 6 any casualty who was Obviously Dead or Out Of the Fight was an Agitator. I rolled a 4 so this punk rioter was not the Mob leader.

Gap fired next, with one shot from his BA Pistol at the female zombie who had just exited the apartment about 6" away from him. He rolled a 5, which added to his Rep of 3 gave him a total of 8. This was a hit because it was his first shot and no other circumstances applied. For damage he rolled a 3, which was higher than the Impact 2 of his BA Pistol. Normally, this would mean a Knockdown result but because he was shooting a zombie, the Easy to Hit rule applied (see p.34). This states that you can replace the weapon's Impact rating with your Rep to score an Obviously Dead result. As Gap was Rep:3 and had rolled a 3 the zombie was killed.

Big Sil fired three shots from his Machine Pistol. Note that with a Target Rating of 3 he HAS to fire three shots every time he pulls the trigger. He fired once at the zombie closest to him on the road and twice at the zombie emerging from the general store. He rolled 5, 5 and 2, to give him totals of 9, 9 and 6 when added to his Rep of 4. The two 9s were hits but not the 6. For damage he rolled 3 and 4, both of which were higher than the Impact 1 of his Machine Pistol but equal to or less than his Rep, so thanks to the Easy to Hit rule, both zombies were Obviously Dead. I do think the Easy to Hit rule should be renamed the Easy to Kill rule as it does not make it any easier to hit a zombie but it does make it a lot easier to kill them if you do score a hit!

Now it was the Mob's turn to move. I rolled 2d6 on the Mob Movement table and this time I passed 2d6. This meant that they would advance 6", whilst firing their weapons. Of the five Rioters with Pistols, only three were within range of Team Vampifan (the 3 Chavs at the right side of the Mob). The other two still fired twice but neither ran out of ammo. Big Sil, Gap and Vampifan were targetted twice each. When the Mob is together you use its Rep for most situations rather than the Rep of individual members. That only applies if someone leaves the Mob. So when the Rioter shot at Big Sil and rolled a 6 and a 2, I added the Mob's Rep of 4 to give me totals of 10 and 6. The 10 hit but the 6 missed. I then rolled a 5 for damage. As a Pistol only has an Impact of 1 this counted as a Knockdown result. Big Sil had to take the Recover From Knockdown Test (see p.14). He passed 2d6 and was only Stunned. He'd have to spend his next turn doing nothing but regaining his feet.

Next to be shot at was Gap. The Rioter rolled 3 and 1 to hit, giving him results of 7 and 5, both misses. Gap had to take a Received Fire Test (see p.13). As he was standing slightly behind Vampifan, Vampifan could make a Leadership roll (score less than or equal to his Rep on 1d6) and if successful add one success to the test result. I rolled a 2 for Vampifan's Leadership - good news for Gap! Gap rolled a 3 and a 5 on the test, which would have meant only passing 1d6 but because he could add the bonus for Vampifan's Leadership, he passed 2d6 and was able to snapfire back. Gap was still a Civilian so he took all his tests on the Civilian QRS. If he'd been a Survivor that result would have let him fire back as normal. He fired once and rolled a 6 to give him a result of 9. Alas, because he was snapfiring this counted as a miss. But hold on, help is at hand! The Pitiful Shot rule (see p.19) states that when a Rep:3 character fires and rolls a 6 to hit his target but still misses, he is allowed to roll 1d6 again. If this roll is equal to or less than his Rep, he has hit. With a roll of 2 he hit the Rioter. For damage, Gap scored a 4, meaning the target was Knocked Down. Rolling on the Recover From Knockdown table, the Rioter passed 1d6 and was classed as being Out of the Fight. I rolled to see if he was the Agitator but he wasn't.

Finally, the Rioter shooting at Vampifan rolled 5 and 3 to hit, giving her results of 9 and 7. Both missed. The 9 missed because Vampifan was in cover, hiding behind the portaloo. Vampifan had to take the Received Fire test but because he was a Star, he was able to choose the result. Naturally he opted to pass 2d6 and was able to return fire. Unlike Gap, Vampifan rolled on the Survivor tables and his shot back was not classed as a snapfire. He fired once and rolled a 4, giving him a result of 8 - a hit. His damage roll was a 3. the same as the Impact rating of his weapon. So the female Chav Rioter was Out Of the Fight. I rolled 1d6 to see if she was the Agitator and scored a 6. She was the Agitator! What a result! This would prove very significant!

And finally, it was the zombies' turn to move. All three remaining zombies were in charge range, causing their targets to take a Being Charged test. I rolled a 6 and a 1 against the Mob's Rep of 4, passing 1d6. The two Rioters to the right of the Mob could melee normally but the Goth guy at the rear would suffer a -2d6 penalty to his Rep for being attacked in the rear. In melee both sides roll d6 equal to their Rep plus or minus certain modifiers. For melee purposes, zombies only roll 1d6. Any roll of 1,2 or 3 is a success. Both sides keep on rolling until one side scores zero successes (meaning the other side wins) or until both sides roll zero successes (meaning the fight ends in a draw for this turn). The first fight involved a female zombie nurse and a female Chav. The Chav scored 2 successes, whilst the zombie score none. Thus, the zombie nurse was Obviously Dead. The second fight involved another female Chav fighting a male zombie in a blue shirt. Both sides ended up scoring zero successes. It was a tie and could continue next turn. The third fight, at the back of the Mob, saw a green shirted zombie getting the drop on a Goth guy. The Goth failed to score any successes with his 2d6 but the zombie scored 1 success, putting the Goth Out Of the Fight. I rolled 1d6 to see how many turns the zombie would feast upon his victim and rolled a 5.

There were just two things left to do this turn - roll for zombie reinforcements and roll for the Mob's Rep. With 18 shots being fired this turn, that was a lot of dice to roll for zombie reinforcements. I rolled 8 successes and 10 failures, which was not as bad as I feared it might be. Note the placement of the female zombie just a couple of inches behind Vampifan and Gap. She could be trouble!

As for the Current Mob Rep Test, they could no longer claim the +1d6 bonus for having a functioning Agitator in the Mob, since Vampifan had put her OOF. The Mob gained +1d6 for each result of OOF or OD it scored this turn. That would give them a +1d6 bonus as one of the female Chavs killed a zombie. However, the Mob suffered a -1d6 penalty for any OOF or OD result it received this turn. This gave it a -4d6 penalty. So they started with 3d6, got a +1d6 bonus and a -4d6 penalty to give them a total of 0d6. Since the Mob could not roll any dice it passed 0d6, meaning the Mob was broken and its members dispersed. What a result for Vampifan!

TURN 3.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 3, Mob =6, Zombies = 4

I rolled to see if the female zombie who had just appeared behind our heroes would attack Vampifan or Gap. Vampifan drew the short straw! Because he was being charged in the rear by a zombie and did not have Line of Sight on her, he was not allowed to take the Being Charged test (see p.33) and would suffer a -2d6 penalty in the fight. This could be very nasty... but it wasn't! I rolled 1d6 for the zombie and failed to score a success, whereas I rolled 2d6 for Vampifan (instead of his usual 4d6) and scored 1 success and 1 failure. The single success gave a result of Out Of the Fight, which is classed as Obviously Dead if the target is a zombie (see p.34). Lucky Vampifan, very lucky! The other four zombies close to Team Vampifan closed in but were unable to make contact this turn. Note that there is one hidden from view underneath the roof of the petrol station.

The two newly arrived zombies at the back of the Mob failed to make contact as well. The zombie who had knocked out the Goth guy began to consume his flesh. A zombie security guard emerged from the alley between the apartment and the temple and charged at a male Chav. As the Mob was no longer a solid entity but lots of individuals, I rolled for the Rep of the Chav being charged. He was just a Rep:3 and when I rolled on the Being Charged table for him he passed 0d6, meaning he would retire rather than fight. So, he ran screaming off the board, leaving the zombie security guard momentarily bewildered.

The zombie in the blue shirt was still locked in combat with a female Chav from last turn. If the Mob had activated first, the Chav would have had the option of withdrawing from the fight or carrying on (see p.22). But, as the zombie activated first, she was denied that option. I rolled for the Rep of the Chav and determined she was Rep:4. Despite rolling 4d6, she only scored 1 success. So did the zombie. So both sides rolled 1d6 and with the Chav rolling a 6 and the zombie rolling a 1, it was clear that the zombie had won by one success. The Chav was knocked Out Of the Fight. I rolled 1d6 to see how many turns the zombie would feed on her and rolled a 3.

Now it was Vampifan's turn. Big Sil spent the turn standing back up as he recovered from being stunned and knocked down. Gap moved to the driver's side of the pick-up truck and fired once with his BA Pistol at the closest zombie, who just happened to be carrying a meat cleaver. He rolled a 5 to hit, which gave him a result of 8 - a hit. For damage he rolled a 4, which was higher that the Impact of his weapon and his Rep, so he couldn't use the Easy to Hit rule. The zombie was just knocked down.

Vampifan also moved to the driver's side of his pick-up truck and he fired once with his Semi-Automatic Rifle at a zombie holding a severed leg, who was approaching Big Sil. He rolled a 3, which gave him a result of 7. It was a miss.

Losing the Agitator must have stunned the Mob as it remained in place this turn, unable to activate. All that was left to do was to dice for zombie reinforcements. With only 2 shots being fired this turn I rolled 2d6 and scored 1 success and 1 failure. The new arrival appeared at the south-east corner of the board close to the propane tank at the side of the petrol station.

TURN 4.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 1, Mob = 3, Zombies = 4.

This time the zombies activated first. The zombie holding the meat cleaver staggered back to his feet. Three zombies charged at Big Sil but only two were able to reach him - the two who had come from the general store across the road. The other ended up less than 2" away to the rear of Big Sil. Big Sil took the Being Charged test and passed 1d6, meaning he could melee normally with them but he couldn't fire at them.

Big Sil had to split his 4d6 against the two zombie assailants, so he naturally used 2d6 against each of them. It was a shame he didn't have time to draw his combat knife as that would have given him an extra 2d6 to use (+1 for having a higher impact weapon and + 1 for having the Knifeman Attribute). Against the legless zombie he scored one success, whilst it scored none. That zombie was toast! Against the zombie carrying the severed leg, neither side scored any successes, so the fight would continue.

Three zombies attacked the remnants of the Mob and another two zombies continued to feast upon their Mob victims. The two zombies at the rear of the Mob attacked an unarmed Rep:3 male Punk and a Rep:3 male Skinhead armed with a one handed improvised weapon (Impact Rating of 1). Both Protestors were not allowed to roll on the Being Charged table and would suffer a -2d6 penalty in the fight, thus making everyone involved equal with just 1d6 to roll each. The Punk and his attacker scored no successes and were locked in combat. The Skinhead lost his fight and was Out Of the Fight. I rolled a 3 on 1d6 to see how many turns the zombie would feed on him. This just left the zombie security guard and a Rep:3 male Chav armed with a rock (classed as an Impact Rating 1 one-handed improvised weapon). The Chav passed 1d6 on the Being Charged Test, allowing him to melee normally. He rolled two successes to the zombie's zero successes and promptly smashed the former security guard's skull, killing him instantly.

Now it was the Mob's turn to activate and having been soundly beaten, I decided they'd want to get as far away as quickly as possible. This meant taking a Fast Move test. I promptly rolled double 1, giving them a stunning pass 2d6 result. This was enough for them to turn tail and flee from the board. The male Punk locked in combat with the zombie broke off from the fight and scarpered off the board with his colleagues.

Finally, it was Team Vampifan's turn to activate. Big Sil drew his combat knife in order to silently take down his zombie opponent. Despite rolling 6d6, he only scored two successes. It was good enough to kill the zombie as the zed scored no successes and fell to the ground decapitated. Big Sil used his movement to get in the pick-up truck via the passenger door.

Gap fired once at the zombie with the meat cleaver. He rolled a 5 to hit, which meant a result of 8 - a hit. For damage he rolled a 3, which was equal to his Rep, so the zombie was killed thanks to the Easy To Hit rule. You've got to love that rule! Gap used his movement to get inside the pick-up truck.

Vampifan targetted the zombie who had tried to sneak up behind Big Sil. I rolled a 4 to hit for my Star, which gave a result of 8 when added to his Rep. For damage I rolled a 2, giving an Out Of the Fight result, which was upgraded to Obviously Dead because his target was a zombie - another rule you've got to love! Vampifan also used his movement to get inside the pick-up truck.
Dicing for zombie reinforcements I rolled 2d6 for the shots Gap and Vampifan had fired this turn. Only one new zombie was generated and he appeared in the alley between the general store and the garage across the road from the petrol station.

TURN 5.   ACTIVATION - Vampifan = 4, Zombies = 3

That zombie who had appeared close to the propane tank caused a slight problem for Vampifan. Because he was within 12" of the pick-up truck, he forced Vampifan to take The Car Won't Start! test (see p.24). This involved rolling 1d6 and if the score is 1,2 or 3 the car starts and can be driven away that turn. Otherwise, the driver must try again next time. Fortunately, Vampifan rolled a 2, so the vehicle started first time. He turned left out of the petrol station and exited the board.

At this point I would have loved to roll for Rep increases because all three deserved the chance. But because none of them found a resource in this scenario, I was unable to. Bummer! I did think about searching the four storey lawyers' offices across the road but, to be honest, that was just asking for trouble. Best to leave whilst the going was good. On the plus side, Gap was able to change his class from Civilian to Survivor, so at least someone gained something from the scenario. Now all three friends were Survivors.

This was a scenario that could have seen Team Vampifan get wiped out if the Mob got within melee range. By keeping their distance, shooting the ringleader and a few others, Team Vampifan were able to cope with the situation. Tactics worth noting if ever your heroes are faced with a similar encounter.

Ebbles M8A3 Kirchner Main Battle Tank

As I promised last time, here's my review of the Ebbles 28mm scale M8A3 Kirchner Main Battle Tank. I don't usually include any figures in my photos of vehicles but this time I thought it would be useful to give you a sense of scale as this tank turned out to be a lot bigger than I envisaged. The figure is one of the Black Scorpion 30mm scale US Infantry figures that I recently painted. I have about three dozen of them, enough for a company.

The dimensions of the tank are 15cm long (6"), which does not include the added length of the cannon on the turret; 9cm wide (3.5") and 6cm tall (2.5"). Like the M11 MPUV that I reviewed last week, it comes in eight colour schemes - Factory Gray, Police Classic, UN White, Monotone Sand, Sand Gray, Olive Drab, NATO 3-Tone Verdant, and NATO 3-Tone Desert. I opted for Olive Drab for my colour scheme. Police Classic is unusual as it begs the question, what kind of a contemporary or near future police force uses Main Battle Tanks? Sorry, Mega City One Judges do not count!

The turret weaponry consists of a 155mm cannon, which comes in two halves - front and back. I've pinned the two halves together and pinned the whole cannon to the turret to give it extra strength and to help prevent it from snapping off. You have a choice of two co-axial weapons to place alongside the cannon - a 30mm autocannon or a heavy machine gun. I chose the autocannon purely for the extra firepower. The smoke launchers fitted to the front of the turret are optional but I wanted them on my tank. There is a further option for including a remote weapon mount, identical to those that I used with my Military M11 MPUVs. Somehow, I didn't think they'd look right on top of the tank turret so I omitted them.

                  

The turret turns by the same method I used for the remote weapon mounts on the M11 MPUVs, i.e. with a pin. The turret and body are reinforced with layers of foamboard glued atop one another to give them a very solid feel and to prevent my pin from wobbling about. Nobody wants a wobbly pin!

The design of the tank is reminiscent of the M1 Abrams MBT currently being used by the US Army. It is similar but definitely not the same. It was an absolute joy to make as it is so unlike any other card vehicle I've made. This is one mean looking beast! You can download the PDF files for this model from the Ebbles website for just $5.00. You'll find it listed under the 2003 models section. I do have plans to use this in at least one ATZ scenario, although it won't be making an appearance this year. Next year, who knows?

Ebbles M11 MPUV

Regular readers of my blog will be familiar with the the name Ebbles, as I often mentioned them when describing some of the interiors of my WWG buildings. This is because I'd often use their furniture pieces to complement that provided by WWG. Ebbles is another cardstock company whom I greatly admire. They tend to concentrate on sci-fi or near future vehicles and scenery. This is my first review of some of their near future models. These three vehicles seen in my series of photos are the M11 MPUV or SUV depending if you want a civilian or military version. The website describes them as being 1/48th scale, which means they'll fit in well with any range of 28mm scale figures.

I have made one civilian version and two military versions. The military versions come with optional roof mounted weaponry. I've made two of the three options - the machine gun remote station (shown on the middle vehicle above) and the missile launcher remote station (shown on the vehicle to the right above). The third option is for a grenade launcher remote station. This looks very similar to the machine gun but has a bulkier barrel.

The weapon mounts that I made do rotate. This was achieved by the simple method of pushing a flat headed pin through the centre of their turntables. If I want to use either of these vehicles as unarmed versions then it is a very easy task to remove the weapon mount. Underneath the weapon mounts and inside the bodies of the two vehicles, I added about half a dozen layers of foamboard on top of each other so that the pins would have something to slot into, thus keeping the weapon mounts stable.

The Ebbles website describes this as "the illegitimate lovechild of a SUV and a Humvee." The model comes with eight colour schemes - Factory Gray, Police Classic, UN White, Monotone Sand, Sand Gray, Olive Drab, NATO 3-Tone Verdant, and NATO 3-Tone Desert. My civilian version is in Factory Gray, whilst my two military versions are Olive Drab. Please note that these vehicles come with wing mirrors, which you can clearly see in the photo above, something that is missing from every WWG vehicle!

                   
This set is ridiculously cheap at only $6.00. Once you've downloaded the set you can make as many as you want, and with eight colour schemes to choose from that's great value for money. The civilian version was much easier to make than the armed military versions. That's simply because the remote weapon mounts are a tad fiddly to make.
It is nice to know that Ebbles and WWG support one another. They view each other as allies rather than competitors, which is such a refreshing attitude to see in any industry. I love these models but I have one very minor criticism to make - I'd love to see a version coloured all black. That would be so useful for the likes of a presidential motorcade or transport mode for a bunch of Men-in-Black!

Note, if no post appears on Sunday don't worry. I'm spending a long weekend at home playing as much ATZ as I can. So expect some new batreps in the near future. The next scenario of my campaign will be called Riot!, which tells you all you need about what team Vampifan will be facing next. The question is, will I be adapting the relatively easy Police Riot scenario or the much harder National Guard Riot scenario from ATZ:Haven? Also, look out for my review of the Ebbles M8A3 Kirchner main battle tank next Wednesday. It's a freaking awesome model!

West Wind Army Special Forces

This figure review looks at the West Wind 28mm scale Road Kill set GRK011 Army Special Forces - Night Rangers. Night Rangers? Never heard of them. This is obviously a small and elite group set up to combat supernatural creatures, seeing as there are vampires, werewolves and zombies in the Road Kill range. However, once I received these figures and had a good look at them, I knew exactly who I wanted them to be. These would be perfectly suited for Echo Team of the DMS (Department of Military Sciences) a covert team of hard ass specialists, who are the heroes of Jonathan Maberry's excellent novels - Patient Zero and The Dragon Factory. I reviewed Patient Zero last year as it dealt with Echo Team trying to prevent a zombie apocalypse taking place in America. A cracking good read for any zombie fan! Whilst The Dragon Factory lacks any undead opponents, it is still an excellent sequel.
So, let's take a closer look at these lovely figures. At the far left of the two photos above is the figure I'm using to represent team leader Captain Joe Ledger. Joe used to be a Baltimore detective before being recruited into the DMS for his exceptional combat skills. He is leaning back and firing his assault rifle from the hip - a very nicely posed action figure. Note that his assault rifle has a huge ammo drum, which I would say in ATZ allows the user to ignore his first Out Of Ammo result. He carries two spare ammo drums, so he's well prepared for an extended firefight! Slung across his back is a sword - very nice for decapitating enemies. He is wearing body armour and a helmet with night vision goggles.
Standing next to Joe is Grace Courtland, an ex-SAS Major. This figure was the best out of the group to represent a female as her left arm is covering her breasts. Not that Grace is well endowed in the chest department. Under all the armour and gear she is wearing she'd lose her womanly outline. I guess, realistically speaking this figure should be smaller than the rest if it was meant to be a female but I can live with the slight height discrepancy. Plus, I like how the figure appears to be assessing the situation as she holds her rifle aloft. All four figures are identically armed and armoured.
Next in line is Bradley "Top" Sims, an ex-US Army Rangers Sergeant and an African American who looks like he's been carved out of stone. Most people call him "Top." Unlike the figures of Joe and Grace, he has night vision goggles in place, not sitting on top of his helmet. He's holding his assault rifle at ease and looks like he's bellowing out orders.
Finally we come to the operative with the unfortunate name of Harvey Rabbit aka "Bunny." His parents must have had a sick sense of humour when they named him! Indeed, he does acknowledge in Patient Zero that he thought his parents hated him! He was in Force Recon before DMS recruited him. In the novels, he is the tallest member of the group. With this figure, his goggles are not being used. He is firing his assault rifle from the shoulder, dishing out a world of pain!
These are all very nicely sculpted figures and I'm sorry that West Wind only make the four of them. In Jonathan's novels, DMS has access to the most cutting edge equipment, armour and weapons thanks to their mysterious boss, Mr. Church (which is probably not his real name). It's always a pleasure to find figures of your heroes from a book, film or TV series. Not a lot of people will know about the Joe Ledger novels but as a huge fan of them I saw the possibility of using these four as Echo Team straight away. A serendipitous find for me! If I ever use these in ATZ (and God, I'd love to!), Joe will be a Rep:7 Military Star, with the others being Rep:6 Military Grunts. This set of four figures costs £6.00 on the West Wind website.

WWG Streets of Legend TLX Set

Having just played my first game of ATZ with the new WWG TLX ground tiles this seems like a good time to run a review of them. I'll let Denny of WWG give you the sales spiel to let you know what you get with this set first -
"In an industry first, this city infrastructure terrain setting allows players to choose between three dynamic themes in all popular grid sizes: Clean urban sprawl, Dirty inner city squalor or Apocalyptic mayhem after the fall of society! Each richly detailed theme offers gamers the ability to build truly modular, truly multi-leveled, 3-D layouts on-the-fly. Design covered underground roadways, elevated road networks, overpasses, multi-lane highways, multi-story concrete precipices, inset alleys or scale it back to small local traffic areas. Choose between realistically scaled city streets or tight quarters roadways. This isn't just roads (though we've covered that in spades), this is; transit walls, railings, stairs (in 3 formats), ramps, pillar posts and all the raw components you need to create the exact city infrastructure layout you desire. And last but certainly not least, we've included full GSD support (automated cutter files) for those who own CraftRobo and or Silhouette SD machines!"

Here's a photo of the layout that I used for the recent Quarantine Breakout scenario, minus the buildings, which shows a 3' by 3' board. The main road, running north/south is 10" wide. Central highway sections can extend this by 6" per tile so that you could replicate multi-lane freeways so prevalent in America. Here in the UK, our motorways are rarely wider than three lanes in each direction. The road that runs east/west is two lanes wide with a road width of 4" flanked by 1" wide pavements. This is roughly the size of the old style tiles found in the Streets of Mayhem set. There are numerous reasons why I am such a big fan of this set but the primary reason is this - versatility. Your only limit to what you can build now is your imagination... oh, and probably the size of your gaming table! The tiles come with no grid, 1" grid and 1.5" grid options. My preference is always for no grid as that looks the most realistic. Having said that, the new grids on the 1" and 1.5" grid tiles are not too obtrusive. Then comes the icing on the cake, a choice of three textures for your tiles - clean, dirty and apocalyptic. The apocalyptic tiles are not as numerous as the other two types but that's not a major issue. For the board that I've shown here, all of the tiles in the top half of the photo have the dirty textures to represent the run-down quarantined area, whilst those in the bottom half of the photo are clean textured tiles, representing the cleaner safe zone. This perfectly demonstrates how the tiles can have an influence on the scenario you're playing.
As I continue to play my ATZ campaign I'll carry on using a combination of clean and dirty tiles. As the campaign progresses the clean tiles will gradually be replaced by more and more dirty tiles until there will come a point where I'll only use dirty textured tiles. After a further passage of time, say in year two of the campaign, the apocalyptic tiles will start appearing and eventually, they will replace the dirty tiles. I salute WWG for their foresight in providing us zombie apocalypse gamers with these options!
I've wittered on a lot about how good they are but are there any negative aspects to these tiles? Well, yes, there are. First, and most importantly, they are very labour intensive to make. More so for me, as I use my own recipe for making them, which differs slightly from the official instructions. To make a standard 6" by 6" tile here's what I do.
I first print the template to an A4 self-adhesive sheet. I cut around the four sides then stick it to a piece of foamboard. Then I cut the foamboard out along with the two slots per side. This is then glued to a piece of mounting card cut to size. I use 3M Photomount to glue them together. The mounting card is glued to the foamcard on the opposite side of the template. Slots are not cut out of the mounting card. The reason for gluing the mounting card to the foamboard is twofold. Most foamboard is only 3/16ths of an inch thick. The sides of the ground tiles are 1/4 of an inch thick. Adding the mounting card increases the thickness to 1/4" - clever, huh? The second reason is that it adds strength and helps to prevent warping.
My next stage in the construction is to glue a 6" square piece of thin card to the base of the tile where the template is. I make little cuts about 1/4" deep where each of the slots are to make it easier to fit the tabs that hold the tiles together. I use Uhu clear adhesive to glue this in place. The reason for adding this is to add strength to the underside of the slots. I felt that leaving them just the thickness of my photopaper would cause them to tear over time.
The final part is to print out the ground tile on good quality matte photo paper. I tried printing one out on the self-adhesive paper but the print quality was very poor. After cutting out the ground tile, I stick it in place using my aerosol spray again. They're great for covering large areas. Finally, I paint the edges of the tile that are showing white. Long winded? You bet! But, like all of my card models, these are built to last.
By the way, the easy job is making the connector tabs. They are printed onto a sheet of self-adhesive paper, stuck onto a piece of foamboard and then cut out. I'm glad something is easy to make with this project! As work on my Mayhem Police Station faltered, I was able to make enough tiles to cover a 4' square area in just over a month.
There is another possible downside to these tiles and that is the tabs. When I made the board you see above I put it together in three 1' by 3' strips. The best way to attach the tabs, I found, is from below. Making the three strips was fine but oh, what a nightmare it was when I tried to clip them together! Strips one and two (the top and middle third) went together relatively easily. But when I tried to clip the third strip in place the whole structure just fell apart. Cue much swearing! My arms just weren't long enough or numerous enough to hold everything in place whilst I tried to attach that elusive bottom third of the board. When I did get them stuck in place I then had to flip the whole lot over so that it was the right way up. Again, it came apart as I attempted this maneuvre! Cue more swearing!
However, this lead me to a discovery - not every slot needs to have a tab to hold it in place. This also taught me another lesson. It is better to glue four 6" tiles together to make a 12" by 12" single tile than four separate 6" by 6" tiles. This is something I'd already done. I must have foresaw this potential problem! I also have some 6" by 12" tiles made. I would not advise making any tiles bigger than 12" square unless you're planning on a permanent layout.
Eventually, I did get the board made, using far fewer tabs than I envisaged using, but it was an interesting exercise and I'll know better next time. We learn from our mistakes, huh?
Tile sizes are 3" by 3" (rarely used), 3" by 6" (seldom used) and 6" by 6" (used extensively). This gives you a lot of leeway in sizing your boards for your buildings to fit. Most of the old style WWG buildings were made with a 7" square footprint or some multiple of that. I have no intention of ditching all of the old buildings I've made - that would just be silly. But the beauty of the TLX system is that it is versatile enough to accomodate those odd sized buildings.
The TLX Streets of Legend set costs $11.95 from the WWG website and is fantastic value for money, when you consider that there is no limit to the amount of tiles you can make. In case anyone is new to this blog or World Works Games, TLX stands for TerrainLinx.