Meta Horde by Sean T. Page and John McCuaig

Meta Horde is a new novel by Sean T. Page and John McCuaig. Sean introduced the term "meta horde" in his book, The War Against the Walking Dead. For those of you who missed my review of that book or for those who don't know what a meta horde is, let me tell you. As we all know zombies gather together to form a horde. As time progresses, smaller hordes of zombies will join together to form a bigger horde. Like the snowball effect, more and more large hordes will unite until they create one vast horde - a meta horde - that numbers in the millions. These meta hordes move across countries and continents killing everyone in their path and growing ever larger as more and more zombies join them. A meta horde is almost impossible to stop. A nuclear strike is one of the few effective ways of stopping them but seeing as they take so long to grow (two years at least) who would still have the capability of launching a nuclear strike if there are so few human survivors left at that time?
This novel concentrates on a group of survivors holed up in the walled town of Carcassonne in Southern France. They are in the direct path of a meta horde that numbers over ten million zombies and is growing in size. Most of continental Europe has been wiped out by the undead menace.
Dr. Raymond Carter is one of a very small group of scientists tasked with finding a way of stopping the meta horde. His solution is to take a small strike team to a nuclear power plant in Belgium, that lies in the path of the meta horde. His plan is to turn the nuclear reactor into a bomb that will wipe out most of the meta horde when it reaches the power plant.
All goes well at first, until a traitor in the group reveals himself and with the help of a covert group of soldiers from the Vatican, who were already hiding at the facility, prevents the reactor fom going into meltdown.
Carter and a few others escape by a helicopter piloted by an Italian who brought the Vatican team in and they travel across the North Sea to York in Northern England. Here, a small group of survivors have held out in the walled city. But, they too face a threat from a meta horde, albeit a much smaller one, numbering a couple of million. That is still more than enough to devastate York's meagre population of a few thousand. However, the defenders do have an ace up their sleeve - three M.O.A.B.s, which stands for Mass Ordnance Air Blast or more colloquilallly as the Mother Of All Bombs! The only problem was that the defenders had no aircraft to carry the bombs and were intending to drive out with them on a suicide mission for the drivers and detonate them amidst the zombies when they got far enough into the meta horde. To say more would take me too far into spoiler territory.
I enjoyed this novel a lot although I did have some criticisms of it. My biggest gripe was with the splinter group of the Roman Catholic Church, who saw the meta hordes as a good thing and who wanted them to wipe out humanity as God's punishment for all their sins and evilness and to cleanse the earth. I found them too silly to be at all credible. And when you see what happens to the group at the end of the novel I did question how they gained so much power and influence in the first place?
Without doubt, the best thing about the novel was the meta hordes. The very idea of them is such a frightening concept that if they ever did become a reality, humanity could well face extinction. The authors did suggest that walled cities like York and Carcassonne offered the best chances for survivors to hold out. But they also pointed out that given the sheer numbers of the meta hordes that it would only be a matter of time before the cities were overcome by the relentless tide of zombies. As Sean T. Page mentioned in The War Against the Walking Dead the best way to stop a meta horde is to prevent it from forming in the first place.
This was a good novel but not a great novel and so I'd rate it with a 7 out of 10 score.

Black Hat Miniatures' Civilians

Black Hat Miniatures are not a very well known figure company, although I have mentioned them before on my blog when I reviewed their small range of five zombies and their six contemporary skeleton soldiers that I converted into zombie soldiers. Now, I am going to review their two sets of five contemporary civilians from their 28mm scale Mutants and Madmen range.

I haven't named any of these figures (my bad!) and they don't come with names, which is a shame. At the far left is the "only gay in the village" whose fondness for pies and fast food is clearly obvious. Note the piercings on his torso. I think he's a rather creepy-looking character. I normally just paint the eyes on a figure in black and white but this guy has piecing blue eyes.
Next to him is the owner and chef of a greasy spoon cafe, holding a dishcloth or a small towel behind his back. His vest is stained and the fact that he can't be bothered to wear a shirt indicates that he doesn't give a damn about his appearance.
In the centre of the group is what I consider to be one of the finest sculpted figures I have ever seen. This figure was a joy to paint and is a masterpiece in sculpting. Why? Because of the little details, and I do mean little. You can see that he is eating a huge beefburger sandwich. If you look closely at his tie you can see two drops of tomato ketchup that have spilled out of his sandwich and landed there. Those two drops of sauce have been sculpted on his tie! The coffee cup he is holding came from a shop called Coffee Stop. I know this because the words "Coffee Stop" have been sculpted on the cup! Just incredible work.! I've added this figure to my collection of detectives as that seemed to be the most obvious vocation for him. He kind of reminds me of detective Andy Sipowicz from NYPD Blue.

Many of you may recognise the fourth figure in line as Gap from Team Vampifan. Yes, this is him in his original form. I converted Gap by removing the guy's baseball hat and adding glasses and an assault rifle slung over his right shoulder. Even Gap himself (yes, he is based on a real person) acknowledged that this figure bears an uncanny resemblance to himself. This figure has been given a goatee beard and is the epitome of surliness and apathy. By the way, the CBA logo on his baseball cap stands for "Can't Be Arsed!"
The last figure in line is an angry-looking chap with his tie undone and his shirt hanging out. He also wears a donkey jacket, (a heavy coat for those of you who have never heard of a donkey jacket) which you rarely see these days. His fists are clenched and he looks like he's ready to start a fight. Don't mess with him!

The first three figures in this group are African/Americans and I figure they are all related. At the far left is what could be a pimp or a drug dealer. He certainly has the feel of the criminal element about him. Note the excessive amount of gold he is wearing - sunglasses, necklace, bracelet, wristwatch and belt buckle. His casual clothing shows that he belongs on the street.
The hulk standing next to him is most likely his personal bodyguard. He may look like a fat slob but check out those muscles on his arms. He too, wears a load of gold bling. His black leather waistcoat prominently displays his allegiance to Black Power. No white trash allowed in his neighbourhood!
In the centre of the group is a potential girlfriend of the pimp. She could be one of his stable of whores, but if she is, this is her in her daytime clothing. She is dressed too casually for a streetwalker and her hair looks like it has never seen a comb.

The fourth figure in line has the look of Steve McGarrett of Hawaii Five-O fame about him. The brightly coloured shirt and hairstyle made me think of Mr. McGarrett. He stands in a very relaxed pose with his arms folded.
Finally, we have a Jamaican dude with his hair in dreadlocks and wearing a t-shirt with the slogan "Surfs Up." He is the most animated of all the figures shown here, crouching down and pointing with his left hand. Once again, he is very casually dressed. These figures are primarily lower class citizens.
I think that all ten figures are incredibly well sculpted, and in the case of the detective, outstandingly well sculpted. Normally, I'd have no hesitation in recommending these to you but I must warn you of one major problem with them. That has to do with their size. Black Hat describes them as being 28mm scale but frankly, that is a joke. They are closer to 35mm scale. They would fit in well with the likes of RAFM and Horrorclix but they tower over a lot of other figures. I have said many times in the past that I am not a scale purist, so their height does not bother me but I know that many of you do not share my view on this matter. So, be warned!
The figures are available separately for £2.50 each. However, it is far better value for money if you buy the two sets of five for just £9.00 per set. That's what I did, although I did buy an extra figure to convert into Gap.

Foundry City Workers

This set of Foundry figures from their Street Violence range is unique in that none of the figures are armed. This is set SV064 City Workers, which comprises five ordinary civilians.

I'll use the names given to them by the Foundry staff to identify them. At the far left is old Mr. Rossiter, who has bent down to tie his shoelaces. It is a very unusual pose but all the better for it. Note his briefcase that is standing to one side. From his smart clothing he would appear to be a corporate type or a store manager.
Next to him is another corporate type in a trench coat. He is carrying a brief case in one hand whilst speaking on his mobile phone in his other hand.. Foundry rather unimaginatively have called him Mobile. I painted him as an African/American, as opposed to the Caucasian colour scheme given to him by Foundry's painter. I used this figure as Mbole Ebunike, the mayor of Night City, in my Cyberpunk 2020 campaign. If you look at the back view of him you can see that some of his papers are visible as if he closed his briefcase in a hurry and hadn't noticed they were sticking out.
In the centre of this group is Haggis (presumably a nickname) the street cleaner. He's taking a rest from sweeping the streets to wipe his brow. Once again, full marks for originality on his sculpting and pose. He wears a high-visibility jacket over his jeans and T-shirt.
Fourth in line is Grant, who has the look of a student about him. He is very casually dressed in hoodie jacket, jeans and trainers. He wears a backpack, which may contain some of his books for his course-work.
At the far right is Miss Pargiter, the only female of the group. She holds a black umbrella and a briefcase, suggesting she is another corporate type. Note that her hair has been tied back in a severe bun. Her pose and mode of dress implies she is not a woman to be messed with. I have based her on a 20mm diameter slottabase, rather than my standard 25mm slottabase, which was far too big for her.

For a group of civilians this is an eclectic mix, representing social classes from the lower class to the high class. My opinion on civilians is the same as my opinion on zombies - you can never have too many. These are useful figures to have in many a game because they are so generic. They are all very well sculpted and for once, Foundry have omitted to include one over-sized figure in the set, something that I know annoys some of you in regards to the Street Violence range.
The City Workers set costs £10.00 for the five figures on Foundry's webstore.

Vampifan's Views 30 - Monthly Musings 15

Vampirella in a playful mood by Amanda Connor

Happy Halloween, folks! It's a joyous time of the year when the undead and the creatures of the night can come out to play and not have to worry about the likes of vampire slayers and zombie hunters.
I begin with some good news for Vampifan's World of the Undead. Two days ago it cracked the 250,000 barrier for the number of page visits! Just think - over a quarter of a million hits! I never thought my blog would be so popular when I first started out over three years ago. A huge thank you to you all!
This month I have mainly been getting prepared for my ATZ-FFO campaign. You saw in my last post the work I've done on designing a character record sheet for my cast of heroes, neutrals and villains. I'm still churning out more pre-generated NPCs. I really didn't think that such a project would have attracted the attention it did receive. A big thanks to all who commented and an even bigger thanks to those who requsted blank copies of my CRS.
On the painting and modelling front, I finished painting another 25 Victory Force 28mm scale zombies from their first horde set. just 25 left to paint before I start work on Horde 2. Currently, I am painting 12 Black Cat Bases Hispanic Gangsters (5 males, 5 females and 2 dogs) as well as 3 Reaper children and 3 Reaper prostitutes. I recently bought 8 Acheson Creations 28mm scale zombies and 15 of their Crazies and Cultists. They'll probably jump the queue and get painted next. Iain from Tengu Miniatures sent me a few samples of their new zombie figures (including zombie dogs) and I'm very impressed with them. I'll be ordering the rest of them very soon. My Stoelzel's Structures Warehouse model is nearing completion. I just have the roof to make now, but what was going to be quite a challenge as I wanted it to come off in one piece, won't be quite so difficult. Fortunately, the very helpful Mr. Stoelzel has made life consideribly easier for me by adding a support piece to the model so that the roof can be removed in one piece. This was customer service above and beyond the call of duty! You rock, Carl! Speaking of Stoelzel's Structures, any card modellers out there ought to check out his new Auto Park Playset, which contains three very easy to make buildings - a car wash, a car showroom and a 3-bay garage. But the real beauty of this set, is that it contains 125 pages of vehicles. There are 10 types of vehicles, each with at least 12 different colour schemes. These models are the equal of the card vehicles produced by World Works Games and that is the highest praise I can give them. If you want variety then look no further.
I finished reading two zombie apocalypse novels this month. First up was Meta Horde by Sean T. Page. Keen readers of my blog will know that I am fascinated by the concept of a zombie meta horde. The novel deals with three meta hordes of varying sizes. The smallest, numbering two to three million is stopped outside of York in the UK. The meta horde that receives the most attention is the one in Europe, numbering over ten million. It is about to descend on the walled city of Carcasonne in France. At the end of the novel, the survivors learn of a massive meta horde sweeping through China and destroying everyone in its path. It numbers over one hundred million zombies! Gulp! It's a good novel but not a great novel. Secondly, I read Zone One by Colson Whitehead and this takes place over three days in New York, well after the Outbreak. Humanity has survived and the clear up operation is underway, as a the story focuses on a team of three sweepers, whose job is to eliminate any zombie stragglers missed by the army when they went on the offensive and made New York a relatively safe zone. The novel is rather slow-paced but is worth sticking with as on day three the complacency of the defenders comes crashing down in spectacular fashion. Can you say meta horde? A big thanks to Varangian for recommending both novels to me. I thoroughly enjoyed them both.
I made a couple of forays to the cinema this month and saw two zombie films, which just couldn't be more different. First up was Resident Evil: Retribution, which I was really looking forward to watching. Sadly, I came out of the cinema with a distinct feeling of meh! This was without doubt the weakest film of the franchise. Catch it on DVD if you want but be warned, it's nothing special. Far more entertaining was the animated comedy, ParaNorman. As with a lot of animated cartoons these days, there is as much humour aimed at the parents as there is for the kiddies. For example, Norman, the hero of the film who can talk to the dead, has the theme music to John Carpenter's Halloween film as his mobile phone ring tone. The kids won't get that one but horror fans like me, certainly will. ParaNorman certainly has its scary moments but children nowadays are made of sterner stuff than when I was a wee nipper. I saw the 3D versions of both films.

I was recently contacted by Modiphius to run a review of a Call of the Cthulhu scenario that his firm had just produced. Three Kings was the first in a series of standalone adventure supplements in the globe-spanning Zero Point campaign for Achtung! Cthulhu written by Sarah Newton. In it you can join a band of heroic soldiers, agents, and partisans behind enemy lines on the eve of World War Two, as they discover the unspeakable horrors of Castle Karlstein in occupied Czechoslovakia. The scenario has been written for both Call of the Cthulhu and Savage Worlds. Full details can be found here - http://www.modiphius.com/ Modiphius kindly supplied me a free copy of the scenario and I must admit to being very impressed with it. Production values are very high. I was quite happy to see that zombies feature in the scenario, which is one of the reasons why I was so willing to mention it on my blog. If you are a fan of Call of the Cthulhu and/or Savage Worlds Three Kings is well worth checking out.
Finally, I received another e-mail from one of my newer followers, Cris Shaffer, who sent me some photos of a diorama that he had made and painted. I liked them so much that I promised him that I'd share them on my blog. The zombie bride and groom are converted Citadel 28mm scale plastic zombies. I must admit to not being a fan of this range but full credit to Cris for a doing such a great job on the conversions. Cris has called this diorama "Till Death Us Do Part, My Arse!" That bride is determined to get her man! You wouldn't want to mess with her!

ATZ-FFO Character Record Sheets

I will soon be starting my ATZ-FFO campaign (next month, hopefully) but I have quite a bit of prep work to do beforehand. One of the things that I wanted to add to this campaign was character record sheets (CRS) for my Stars and Grunts. The main reason for this is that I want to add a greater degree of complexity in my game with regards to skills. My friend Joe/Zabadak began a discussion on the Board of the Living Lead forum about how unrealistic it was that Rep is used to cover so many skills - shooting, melee, driving, initiative, leadership, etc. I totally agreed with him and that got me thinking. I realise that the reason for the all-inclusive Rep stat is to keep the game's mechanics simple and speed up play. I was happy to go along with that in my ATZ-BDTZ campaign, but now that I am making a fresh start with FFO I want more complexity in my game. I'm aiming for somewhere in between the simplicity of BDTZ and the complexity of GURPS.
So to that end I am giving my characters six skills that are separate from their Rep. They are Driving, Melee, Shooting, Fitness, People and Savvy. Rep will be used for Initiative and any tests not covered by the other six skills. In After The Horsemen, Fitness, People and Savvy were separate skills from Rep but in FFO, Fitness has been incorporated into Rep and is used for Physical Challenges. In my game they are all separate skills.
The stat scores for the six skills are worked out as follows - three skills are chosen at the same level as the character's Rep, two are chosen at Rep minus one and one is chosen at Rep minus two. To show this in action, I present to you my CRS for Vampifan as he will appear on Day One of my new FFO campaign.

The CRS that I designed measures 5" by 3" and is printed out on 190gm printer paper, which is quite thick. I have a small box designed to hold 5" by 3" index cards in that I use to store my CRSs. Most of the info on the CRS is relevant to gameplay. Extra info like Items owned, Resources stashed away at home and perhaps a brief biography or a list of encounters that the character has taken part in could be recorded on the back of the CRS. I'll probably list these separately on my computer. The star symbol * that appears after Vampifan's name is just a quick reminder to show that he is a Star (thanks for that tip, Joe).
Vampifan is my alter ego in FFO. He is like me in some respects but he is much more an idealised version of how I'd like to appear in a zombie apocalypse. Plus, by setting my campaign in Mayhem City, USA, certain changes were necessitated. In real life I don't drive, fight or shoot. In FFO, Vampifan drives to work most days, he practices kendo once per week and he is a keen member of his local gun club. He still likes to eat too much junk food and spends too much time working on his computer, hence his pitifully low Fitness score. His People skills are high, due to his many meetings with clients and staff members, whilst his Savvy skills are about average. I kept his Slow Attribute as before but I gave him the Born Leader attribute to boost his chances of keeping Team Vampifan together at the end of each month. With regards to Attributes, I prefer to choose the Attribute that I think best represents that particular character, rather than dicing for it and getting something inappropriate. Is that cheating? No, it is not. It is creating the characters that I want to best tell my story. For the most part, I stick with the Attributes listed in FFO, but for a few characters I have chosen ones that appear in ATH.
When it comes to increasing a character's Rep or Skill, I shall stick with the rules as they are in FFO, with one slight change. Normally a person can roll to increase their Rep or a skill. Because I have greatly increased the number of skills I will allow a character to increase their Rep or two separate skills, provided that both skills were used successfully in the encounter. The exception to this rule that a zero-level skill can be increased in place of a successfully used skill. As per the rules in FFO, no skill can be higher than the character's Rep score. Grunts are limited to having no skill or Rep higher than six. For Stars, there is no limit. Due to the number of skills I'll be using in my campaign, character  advancement will be slower than in a normal game of FFO but I don't mind that. Sometimes advancing too quickly can derail a game.
I am a fan of the rule in FFO for "loading up" your own PEFs with pre-generated characters. As a consequence, I have been spending a lot of time these past few weeks designing my own Grunts to use in my campaign and I now have a nice selection of Survivors, Gangers, Civilians, Police and Military folk to choose from. Each of them has their own CRS.
Here are the CRSs for Big Sil, Angie and Gap as they will appear on Day One of the new campaign. Note that all of Team Vampifan are now presented with their full names as well as their nicknames, something I never did in my BDTZ campaign. Big Sil and Angie are Rep:4 because they have had a tough upbringing and have had numerous scrapes with other gangs and with the police. Gap is just a typical civilian office worker and so is just Rep:3.

I realise that this post will be of little practical use to most (all?) of you, but it was important to inform you of the house rules and changes I will be making to my own ATZ-FFO campaign. The beauty of the THW games is that they are yours to do with as you wish.