Saturday 10 May 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!

38 comments:

  1. A fantastic Report. 4 Dead police is bound to get noticed in more than just the donut shop. The next cops on the scene will notice two abandoned vehicles. A lot of blood but maybe the horde will have dissipated.
    All my players love the Zombie Feast rules as It usually means everyone gets a couple of free moves. (And It's usually me being eaten.... having been double crossed by one "Relfy".....I'll get him one day!). I really enjoyed that please don't leave it long between now and the next batrep. Nice one mate.

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much, Clint. I'd love to play loads more games but sadly real life dictates when I can and when I can't. Still, I'll try not to leave it too long for the next one.

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  2. Excellent finale Bryan. This was a really nice story, without the emotional attachment of Team Vampifan, anything could and did happen. I really like the close-ups of the melee and the zombies, it showcased them beautifully.

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    1. You are absolutely right, Bob, I was not emotionally attached to any of the four groups, so I wasn't too bothered about who lived or died. Thanks for the compliments on my photography. It's something people rarely ever comment on.

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  3. Lucky break for Jevon, I'd say. Not so good for everyone else - surely the police will change their tactics in the aftermath of this massacre :-) ?

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    1. I'd have to agree with you about Jevon, Hugh. He'd never have escaped if the zombies weren't so preoccupied eating the four cops. Regarding police tactics, I don't know why the rules don't give you the option of using SWAT Troopers in FFO. Probably an oversight.

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  4. Just like your BDTZ campaign, it again seems like carrying a police badge in Mayhem City equals a death sentence! Great finish to the scenario Bryan, and I agree with bob on the melee pics, particularly when Geoff went down!

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    1. Thanks, Dave. More praise for my photography. I am flattered. Yes, who'd want to be a policeman in Mayhem City?

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  5. Great climax to the scenario, I count over two dozen, casualties and zombies in the final picture, let alone the other two dozen or so zombies off camera. I thought Officer Muni was unlucky, I was rooting for him to survive and flee, but at least he went down fighting.
    A thoroughly enjoable aar and it's hard to believe that that game only lasted seven turns !

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    1. Thanks, Joe. There was so much that happened in this scenario that you can see why I had to spread it over three parts. I was going to say that the Police went down fighting but that's not strictly true. Muni. Malia and Whincup fought to the very end but they stood little chance against such overwhelming odds. Patrolman Brown simply froze and died because of his failure to act.

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  6. I told you the cops would die.... ;)
    Great report.

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    1. And you were right! It was inevitable, wasn't it?

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  7. Great finish to a great s tory. The poor Cops had no chance against that kind of odds.
    The ware house looks great on the board, I miss making buildings, Ill have to get back to work soon in 20mm

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    1. Thanks, Shinto. You know I just love making card scenery and the warehouse is one of my favourite buildings. This won't be the last time you see it. I really do hope you get back to making card scenery again. I certainly know what it's like to lose your enthusiasm.

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  8. Great climax, Bryan. This part reminded me a lot of a chapter in Dead City by Joe McKinney (good read).

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    1. Many thanks, Simon.It was years ago that I read Dead City and now I can hardly remember it all. That's what old age does to you!

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  9. Fantastic finale Bryan I thoroughly enjoyed it! I just had to start from the beginning and read it through it all again from start to finish to appreciate what a beauty of a game it was. Just Brilliant! How typical that the would be rescuers ended up getting chomped on by the horde that gathered.

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    1. Cheers, Simon. Reading all three parts back to back makes a lot of sense. It is quite rare for the zombies to win so comprehensively but here they had weight of numbers on their side and in the end they were simply unstoppable.

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  10. Very enjoyable read, well done sir! The dangers of a large horde cannot be overstated. It only takes one bad roll, and with so many zombies, that bad roll WILL come up.

    I know how you feel running a campaign, you want the team to do well, but it is amazing what story can be told by letting the dice fall where they may. I can't wait to see more from your campaign, this is a great start.

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    1. I totally agree with you, Nobody667. Don't worry, this is only the first of many alternative tales from Mayhem City. Not every story will be about Team Vampifan. You are right about bad dice rolls. As soon as the police failed to activate on Turn 7 I knew it was game over for them.

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  11. Great report. It went terrible for everybody but the KKK. I am sad for the cops. Their ending was so dramatic.

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    1. I'd say it went well for the KKK AND the zombies but terrible for the Crips and the Police.
      Two sets of winners and two sets of losers, Cedric.

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  12. That....Was bloody..... And a good read too! Cheers for making yet another great battle report! I like the fact that after the initial shootout between the gangs, you could have called it quits. But did not. Thus...As in real life....Things happen. For every action there will be a reaction.

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    1. I almost did call it quits at the end of Turn 1, Johnny. I sure am glad that I changed my mind and decided to carry on. After Turn 1 the game took on a life of its own. You are quite right - as in real life... things happen!

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    2. not sure if the zombie really have the winner/loser concept :)

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    3. In a sense you're right, but if they end up feasting on a bunch of humans that must count as victory to them.

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  13. That was a great end to your game - really intense!
    And I just have to say it yet once again - I really like reading your reports as your terrain and miniatures are most inspirational.

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    1. That's very high praise indeed, Mathyoo. Thank you so much.

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  14. I loved the last stand of the cops and with zombies you have to be lucky all the time, zombies need to be lucky once and have lots and lots of chances, great report Bryan.

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  15. Fantastic Bryan. I am so glad I am not an officer in Mayhem city police force! Every time I see your terrain it inspires me even more, thank you.

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    1. Adam, you're not the first to comment upon the life expectancy of the MCPD cops, and I'm sure you won't be the last, either.

      Inspiring others is what this blog is all about so many thanks for that compliment. It means a lot to me.

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  16. Great stuff I have sent you a nomination on for a liebster award play along if you want(you dont have to)
    http://bandit86.blogspot.com/2014/05/liebster-awards-par-2.html

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    1. Thanks for the nomination, bandit86. I'll get back to you if I decide to play along.

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  17. Bloody marvelous, read bloody and marvelous. Good shoot out!! Well done.

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  18. O M G in all this time reading your blog over the last few weeks, you`re going to find it hard to believe... but somehow I completely missed your campaign and batreps.
    OUTSTANDING, highly enjoyable an very inspirational. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit. Your eye to detail is what I especially like. Thank you for sharing. Makes me all the more keen to get my own zombie campaign up and running.

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    1. Better late than never, Stephen! If you missed my previous batreps or are just a newcomer to my blog, as I know you are, it is to miss my campaign batreps because sadly i don't do near as many as I'd like to. Still now that you know where they are and how easy they are to find, I hope you enjoy reading them. As for your own campaign, all I can say is, DO IT!!!!!

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